Light's Outcast Shadows
by FA Ego
Summary: Sequel to Time off. A rise from the grave, two souls in one body, and a usurpment of power on Corneria cause chaos throughout Lylat. And of course Team Starfox is right in the middle of it all.   No longer updating
1. Chapter 1

Light's outcast shadows chapter 1

A/N: First thing's first in case you missed it this is a sequel to the story Time Off? so you should go check that out before reading this one. The idea for this story came to me while I was bored at my cousin's house. He went to the bathroom and I outlined the story while he was gone. I'm not giving anything away and I really think this is going to be awesome. Please enjoy and review if you get a chance.

-F.A.E

* * *

Fox strolled lazily along the hallways of the Greatfox. It had seemed very empty to him lately. Katt had left immediately after their successful assault of Andross's venom labs. The next day Falco told Fox that he was leaving as well. Fox felt bad for his friend. Falco told Fox that Katt was giving him mixed signals; Katt told Falco that she loved him. Falco was happy for only a second, after that Katt also told him that she was leaving. She said that she didn't want to get into a relationship with him until he grew up some more. Falco was really broken up about it. He decided to leave the team again and try to fix his relationship with Katt. Fox was very surprised about his decision, it was a very grown up thing to do.

Slippy was also gone. He was offered a job with Corneria's weapons R & D. Slippy always enjoyed study and deep thinking to battle. At first Fox thought he would stay, so did Slippy. He wanted to stay close to his friends but was convinced by his father, Beltino, to work for Corneria directly.

Fox was sad to see his friends go, but on the other hand… "Hey Krystal, where ya been?" Fox yelled up to Krystal at the end of the hell. "I asked R.O.B where you were and he told me you were in the rec. room."

Krystal smiled understandingly. "Well I was you must have just missed me. I'm heading down to the bridge now, what did you want to see me for?"

"I realized that we were low on fuel, so I set us on a course for corneria to fuel up. I thought you might want to know. I'll walk with you to the bridge if you want."

"Alright," Krystal said as they started to walk towards the bridge. "Oh, when we're at Corneria we could go and visit Slippy."

Fox nodded. "Yeah, hopefully he won't be too busy when we get there. I miss having him around."

Krystal agreed with him. "Me too, but he seems happy to be where he is." Krystal put a hand to her head. "Aww my head is starting to hurt again. I'm going to go to my room for a second, don't wait for me."

Krystal walked a short distance to her room and went in. Fox stared at the door worried deeply for Krystal. She had been having immense headaches every since the battle on Venom. Fox jumped when a shrill yell came from Krystal's room. Fox ran inside and saw Krystal lying in her bed with her face covered in the blankets. "Krystal are you alright?"

Krystal moved aside her blankets and turned to face Fox. The look on her face scared Fox. In all his life he had never seen Krystal look so angry. "I told you to leave! Get out of here!"

Fox backed out of the room quickly. _"What was that about? I was just worried about her. I better just keep going then, I don't want her to be mad at me like that." _

Fox continued walking towards the bridge, alone. The thought of Krystal in pain hurt him deeply. The image of Krystal in her rage was burned into Fox's mind. _"When we get to Corneria we'll go and see a doctor. There's got to be something that can be done…_"

Fox walked onto the bridge and was greeted by R.O.B. "Hello, we are very close to Corneria as we were in orbit around the planet beforehand. We will be able to land in about five minutes. Would you like me to arrange a place to stay during the Greatfox's refueling, or would you like to stay onboard?"

"Arrange for a place to stay. Somewhere close to where Slippy works, try to make it a nice place as well. Don't worry about the cost." Fox walked over to the main screen of the bridge. "Call Slippy's office as well, I want to tell him we'll be stopping by."

R.O.B started to type on his keyboard and was ready to call in record time. "Affirmative, I am putting the call on screen."

Fox waited a moment for the call to be received and was soon looking up at a larger than life version of his friend. "Hey Slippy, How are you?"

Slippy smiled. "Great, although I do miss you guys. When are you going to come to Corneria next?"

Fox smiled at Slippy's amazing guess of the intent of his call. "Well we're stopping on Corneria today actually, that's why I called you."

Slippy winked at Fox. "I guessed as much, I figured you'd be running out of fuel soon. You guys can stop by my apartment, it isn't much but I love the neighborhood. By the way have you gotten any news from Falco?"

Fox shook his head. "No I haven't, but I think he's probably just fine on his own. I wouldn't worry too much about him. When he gets bored he'll come running back here."

Slippy laughed. "Yeah I guess so. But from what I've heard he's been planet hopping recently, He's been seen from Fichina, to Katina, to Corneria. I don't know what he's been doing but I haven't actually seen any bad press about him lately."

Fox nodded. "Yeah and I don't think you will. I think I know why he's been around so much lately and I'm proud of him for it. He really has grown up recently, but he's still really restless."

"Oh yeah, before I forget, there's been talk around here of a major rip in the space-time continuum out near sector x. they're looking for someone to go out there and see what happened, I thought you may be interested."

Fox thought about it for a second. "Alright, I'll think about it. I got to go now; we're pretty much ready to land. I'll see you at your place."

"Alright then, I'll be leaving work soon so I'll be there. Don't worry about hurrying here, I don't have any plans. See you Fox." With that the monitor went black and Fox went to sit in the captain's chair.

"We'll be landing within the minute." R.O.B informed Fox. Fox just nodded to the helpful robot.

Krystal walked onto the bridge looking as if nothing had happened and came to sit on the arm of Fox's chair. "I'm sorry I yelled at you Fox. I really didn't mean to, the pain in my head was just…"

Fox stopped her. "Don't worry about it, when we land on Corneria we can go see a doctor to see what's wrong. Hopefully it isn't anything serious. After that we can go and visit Slippy at his apartment."

Krystal slid her hand into his. "Thanks for worrying about me Fox. And I look forward to seeing Slippy again."

Fox was soothed by her touch. "No problem, by the way I heard there was a job that we could actually do with only two pilots."

"That sounds good. I'll be happy to be back in work again." Krystal opened her mouth to say more but was cut off by R.O.B.

"We have now landed on Corneria. I have found a hotel that is close to Slippy's apartment, and I made you directions to the hotel and a doctor's office nearby."

Fox hopped out of his chair and grabbed the directions from R.O.B. "Thanks R.O.B you're the best." Fox turned to Krystal and bowed low shifting his arms to the bridge's exit. "Shall we?"

Krystal laughed and walked over to Fox. "Come on let's go." She pulled him upright and they walked out of the Greatfox.

* * *

"Well I can't do much to cure you of your headaches except give you a prescription for painkillers when you do get them." The doctor said to Krystal. "Have you been through any extremely stressful event recently?"

Krystal nodded. The doctor sighed. "That's probably what caused the headaches then. I don't think it will last very long. Usually these types of things go away on their own."

Krystal stood up from the examination seat and thanked the doctor. "Do you know anywhere I can get these med's from around here?"

"Yeah, I can get the prescription filled out right here in the hospital. They'll take a little while to get ready though. You may want to just come back later for them."

Krystal smiled. "Okay I'll do that. Thanks again." Krystal walked out of the room and walked back out into the waiting room.

Fox stood up immediately and walked over to her. "So how'd it go?"

Krystal smiled at the concern painted across Fox's face. "I'll be fine I just need to stop by later to get some medicine."

Fox smiled and sighed in relief. "Thank god, do you want to go to Slippy's house now?"

"Yeah sure." Krystal said as they began to walk towards the exit. "It's just up the street right?"

Fox nodded. "Yeah it's not far at all. By the way, I should probably tell you what that mission was about. It was about a rip in time-space, Corneria wants someone to go and investigate the spot where it happened."

Krystal shrugged. "It doesn't sound too difficult. I wouldn't mind going on an easy recon mission."

"Alright, after we visit with Slippy, I'll go and get the job for us."

* * *

Fox walked into General Pepper's office. The General was standing beside his chair reading a paper on his desk when Fox came in. Fox coughed loudly and Pepper looked up at him. "Oh hello Fox, What brings you here?"

Fox shrugged. "A few things, mainly the Greatfox needed to refuel. But I also came to visit with some friends. I also heard you have a mission to check out a rip in space-time out near sector x. I thought it may be a mission that wouldn't require a large crew."

General Pepper nodded. "You're right, that mission wouldn't require a large crew. I'm guessing you want to pay for the replacement fighters."

Fox shrugged. "Yeah that would be a big help but I mostly just wanted something to do. It's been real boring just waiting onboard the Greatfox."

"I don't doubt it. Well since you are the first to offer, you got the mission. Just make sure you don't get into anything bigger than you're two man crew."

Fox chuckled. "Alright father I'll make sure not to get into trouble, trust me."

General Pepper laughed at Fox's joke. "I'm old enough to be your Grandfather. So don't give me lip. Get out of here and get to work."

"Yes Sir!"

* * *

Fox met Krystal onboard the Greatfox. Krystal was holding a small paper bag. "So did you get us the job?"

Fox grinned. "Of course, Pepper loves us; he would never deny us a mission."

Krystal smiled. "That's good, I already checked with R.O.B and he said we were ready to go. So we can get going tomorrow morning if you want."

Fox nodded. "Alright, so is that your headache medicine."

Krystal smirked at him. "No it's just a bag I felt like carrying back from the hospital."

"Huh sarcasm, I think I got enough of that when Falco was around."

Krystal laughed and pulled Fox into a hug. "I love you Fox."

"I love you too Krystal."

* * *

A/N: Wow not that much happened, prolly cus it's the first chapter, but whatever. I have a very good idea for what's going to happen in this one but if you have any suggestions don't be afraid to make them.


	2. Chapter 2

Lights outcast shadows chapter 2

A/N: Cool got a lot of positive feedback for the first chapter; I hope this chapter will do as well. I'm taking quite a while, cus I've been having writer's block recently. Read and Review please.

- F.A.E

* * *

_Fox and Krystal sat side by side looking out from the Greatfox at a beautiful newly formed galaxy. Fox tried to talk but no words came, instead he placed his hand on Krystal's and smiled at her. Krystal smiled back and then continued to stare at the beautiful clouds of bright colored dust. Fox looked too, but when he looked back there was nothing but darkness. Krystal stood up and put her hands on the glass. Fox stood with her and looked to her with a look of awe. Krystal didn't respond. The glass in front of her vanished and fell through the opening. Fox tried to yell but nothing came out. Fox ran to the opening and he couldn't see Krystal anywhere. On an impulse Fox jumped out of the ship and floated there in the bleak darkness. Fox tried to move but he couldn't, his body wouldn't respond. Out of nowhere Krystal reappeared in front of Fox. Fox again tried to yell and again found it impossible. Then Krystal began to change, she became almost unrecognizable. Then Krystal was no longer there and there was Andross in her place. Fox tried desperately to move but succeeded only in moving his hand an inch. Andross grabbed Fox by the throat and…_

Fox awoke to a light rap on his door. He found himself in a cold sweat with his hands massaging an imaginary wound on his throat. "Come in." Fox's voice was hoarse from the long night's sleep.

Krystal walked in and sat down on the edge of Fox's bed. Krystal smiled as Fox sat up and she realized that he had slept shirtless. "Did you get a good night's sleep?"

Fox put his hand to his head and exhaled forcefully. "No, not really, I had a nightmare. I'm normally not bothered by these kinds of things, but this one really messed with me."

Krystal placed a hand on his chest and moved closer to him. "Maybe I can make you feel a little better." Krystal placed her other hand behind Fox's head and leaned into a passionate kiss.

When they pulled away Fox smiled at Krystal and put a hand behind her back. "I could be on my deathbed and you'd be able to make me feel better." Fox dipped back in and kissed Krystal again.

They again broke away and Krystal stood up from the bed, offering a hand to Fox. "That's a horrible thing to think of. Now come on, we've got to get going. Neither of us told R.O.B where we were going. Do you even know how to get there?"

Fox took the offered hand and pulled himself up from the bed. "Yeah I know how to get there, but you're going to need to wait a second anyway. I still need to get dressed."

Fox was only wearing a pair of sweatpants, a large difference from his usual flight-suit. Krystal crossed her arms and pretended to examine him, giving a satisfactory hmm as she looked him up and down. "Well I think you look fine, as a matter of fact I think you should dress this way more often."

Fox walked over to his dresser and took out a shirt and socks. "Well I at least need to be decent. By the way, have you tried the headache medicine yet?"

Krystal waited patiently by the door as Fox hastily dressed himself. "Well I took them, and they do what they're supposed to, I don't get any pain after I take them."

Fox pulled his shirt over his head and started to look around his room for a pair of shoes. "That's good. Arg, have you seen my shoes around anywhere?"

Krystal lifted a pair of sneakers from the floor and smiled at Fox. "You mean these? The ones you've looked over a million times already?"

Fox took the shoes from Krystal and sat back down on his bed to put them on. "I am a guy you know, I can never find what I'm looking for."

After Fox slipped on his shoes he and Krystal walked to the bridge, enjoying each others company and having a very light-hearted conversation. When they walked onto the bridge they were both laughing almost to the point of tears. R.O.B noticed they're uproarious entrance and asked them flatly, much to they're amusement. "Am I missing something?"

Fox wiped away a tear and stopped himself laughing to give R.O.B his answer. "No we were just laughing about something that happened a long time ago.

R.O.B started them off again as he commented with a shake of his head. "It must have been a seriously funny event for you still to be laughing about it."

* * *

Fox and Krystal sat side by side on the bridge of the Greatfox, hand in hand, waiting patiently for the approach of the mysterious space-time rip. Krystal stood suddenly and started towards the exit. "I… really need to go to the bathroom, I'll be back in a little while."

Fox watched as Krystal practically ran from the bridge. So Fox was left alone on the bridge with R.O.B, who was engrossed in the work of piloting the Greatfox. Fox laid back in his chair and stared at the ceiling of the ship. Fox sighed and turned his attention to the piloting droid. "Hey R.O.B how much longer until we get there?"

The hard working droid turned from his work to respond. Fox couldn't tell if the annoyed tone he heard was imaginary or not. "We'll be there soon, that is if I am allowed to keep working."

Fox chuckled and held up his hands submissively. "Oh don't worry about me, just make sure we get there alright."

R.O.B turned back to the computer screen. "Good." R.O.B continued his examination of the Greatfox and it's surroundings. R.O.B stopped suddenly and turned back to Fox. "There is an unidentified object floating in the path of our ship."

Fox tilted back forward in his chair. "Bring it up on the main screen."

Krystal walked back onto the bridge as the screen lit up with an image of the object. "What's that?"

Fox was reminded of a large stasis tube he saw once in a Cornerian hospital. "I'm not sure, but I'm more concerned about how it got here."

Krystal walked closer to the screen to get a better look. "Hmm… it kind of looks like… no, that couldn't be it." Krystal whispered to herself, then seeing that Fox was unsure of what to do, suggested an idea. "Well it doesn't look dangerous, why don't we bring it in to get a better look at it?"

Fox thought for a second and then gave his decision. "That sounds fine with me. R.O.B bring it into the ship and check it for anything dangerous, radiation, acid, that kind of thing. Bring it to… uh I guess any open room will work. Hmm… bring it to the hospital area, that place is pretty big and there's nothing really important in there."

* * *

General Pepper sat in his chair in his office, where he spent a majority of his time nowadays. The General was too old to do much moving around so he ran Corneria from his office, with his subordinates doing the physical aspect of the job. Pepper finished reading through a full report of the Titanian war. _"I wish there wasn't any strife when I resign, but I guess it can't be helped. I don't see an end for the war anytime soon._ _I wonder who will take up the post after me." _

A beep came from a speaker on his desk. Pepper pushed the button next to the speaker and spoke into it. "Yes, what is it?"

The voice of a young receptionist came up to him. "There is a gentleman here who would like to see you sir. He says his name is Jensen Ferrier."

General Pepper sighed and hit the button again to respond. "Alright let him come." Jensen was the leader of an opposing political group. Pepper had no doubt in his mind he had come to argue about something or other. _"That young one will be the death of me; we disagree on anything it is possible to disagree on. I wonder what it could be this time, health care, global cooling, more strict laws?"_

There was a loud knock on the door. "Yeah, come in." The door swung open and a cloaked figure walked inside. The figure was dressed entirely in black and Pepper could see a blaster pistol held in his left hand. Pepper raised his hands to show he was unarmed. The figure pointed the blaster at Pepper and shot him twice in the chest and once in the head. Pepper slumped in his chair and his eyes clouded over. The dark figure walked over to the chair and checked the General's pulse. When there was none he threw the body out of the chair and into a corner of the room. A beep came from the desk and the figure answered it. "Yeah?"

The receptionist's voice came to him, scared and frantic. "General Pepper, you need to run! There are…" her voice was cut off by a blaster shot. Then a different voice came from the speaker. "It's all clear down here. Did you get him?"

The figure sat down in the chair and laughed. "Of course I did, did you think I could fail? He was just an old man."

The voice came back sounding irate. "Yeah, I know your reputation but I wouldn't want to leave while he was alive would I?"

The masked man got up and started for the door. "Yeah whatever, I'm coming down now, make sure the vehicle's ready."

* * *

Fox and Krystal walked down to the hospital room and walked inside, making straight for the odd object located on the bed in the middle of the room. R.O.B stood next to the object and read off what he had learned of it. "This seems to be a cryo-tube of some sort, although it is different in it's mechanics from what is used in the lylat system. I have also detected life within the tube, the life form has a decreased heart rate and slowed breathing but I think it is likely that he will come back when the tube is defrosted."

Fox examined the cryo-tube; the cover that should have been transparent was covered in frost. "Well let's wake him up then, he'll probably be able to tell us what happened to him."

R.O.B began waking the life form. Krystal showed excitement at the idea of meeting this new person that came from out of the galaxy. "It's pretty amazing that he was just drifting in space like this. Who knows how long he could have been out there?"

The cryo-tube gave a hiss and the top lifted. The person inside sat up. Krystal was taken aback by his appearance. He was a Fox with blue fur and black head-fur. He looked towards them with a questioning look. As he brushed aside his bangs a white symbol was revealed on his forehead. It was a circle with a triangle above it and another triangle to one side of it. He was young but muscular and wore decretive white and golden clothes, similar to those that Krystal wore throughout the adventure on dinosaur planet. He stood and exited the tube. His upper body was covered in two layers, a white over-shirt with a golden collar, and a lower shirt that covered his arms which was banded in white and gold. He wore loose-fitting white pants with golden spots at the bottoms. Fox's eyes were drawn to a sling across his back which was obviously a weapon carrier. The mysterious Fox smiled at the sight of Krystal and he extended a hand to her. Krystal shook his hand and then asked him the question's she had been wanting to ask for a long time. "Who are you, Where are you from, and how did you end up floating around in this cryo-tube?"

"I am Blaze and don't bother introducing yourself, I know who you are. My Mom told me about you, you're Krystal. I could tell from your royal markings. You're the only other person we thought could have survived the explosion. As for the other questions, those might take a while to answer." Blaze moved the tube off the medical table and sat down on it.

Fox sat down as well. "Well start up your story, we don't have anywhere else to be. Besides I have an odd feeling about this that I want to be confirmed."

* * *

A/N: Dun-Dun-Duh! O.C alert! Wow a lot happened in this chapter and yet it took me this long to write. Sorry about that by the way. I had no inspiration for a while, but I got back to it after a short break. That's the second good guy that's died in my series, sorry if anyone really liked Pepper, but he was getting old he was going to die of old age soon anyway. Ok see ya next chapter.

-F.A.E


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Well I finally got the next chapter done : P

A/N: Well I finally got the next chapter done : P. sorry for the long wait but I've had a lot going on that was more important than writing. Hopefully I can go for a longer spurt of time without a break this time. blazemcburl./art/Blaze-from-L-O-S-76663081 that's a link to a picture of the character Blaze. I'm not much of an artist but whatever.

* * *

Blaze lounged out on the medical table and put a hand to his chin in contemplation. "Hmm, so where should I start?" Blaze continued scratching his chin and staring at the ceiling until a starting point seemed to fit him. "Alright, I guess it would be best to get this out of the way immediately. I'm from Cerinia, just like you Krystal."

Krystal gaped and struggled to form the questions she was dying to ask. Blaze held up his hand for silence. "I know what you're thinking, you're wondering how we survived Cerinia's destruction. Well you weren't the only one who suspected Andross wasn't all he was cracked up to be. My parents along with some friends decided to create an escape plan, just in case Andross decided we were no longer useful to him. Without the knowledge of the rest of the planet we created a ship that was to have an extra-dimensional transporter built in. Sadly for us our sun was about to go supernova before the ship was complete so we had to use a prototype that couldn't be brought onboard. We were able to leave the dimension but weren't able to come back." After taking a deep sorrowful breath Blaze continued. "The prototype created the desired rip in space-time but it was much too large to bring with us. For a long time after we drifted helplessly in this extra dimension trying to find a way back to the real world. Eventually we succeeded in making a smaller version of the dimensional transport, but it only had enough juice to make a rip big enough for one of us to go through, so they sent me through in this." He pointed at the cryo-tube. "My job is to gather support and rescue the rest of them."

Krystal shook her head in slight disbelief. "That's a pretty amazing thing for someone as young as you to be doing."

Blaze sat up and looked at Krystal with a look of indignation. "Hey I'm definitely old enough; I'm even mature for my age! Everyone always say's that I'm a 16 year old with the mind of 30 year old."

Fox held up his hands and smiled at Blaze's pure hatred of being called young. "Whoa now, don't worry about it, she just meant that what you're doing is really great. We'll help you out as well as we can, but don't expect much help if you need us to help build you a new space-rip thing, we're not mechanics."

Blaze chuckled and shook his head. "Don't worry about that, I can build another one myself, I just need a little help gathering the pieces I need, plus a power source." Blaze moved to a cross legged sitting position and stared at the ceiling trying to grasp an old memory that was eluding him. "As a matter of fact I can remember where my dad kept a power source; it should have been safe from the explosion since it was left outside of our galaxy."

Fox shook Blaze's hand. "Alright we can head there, but first I'm going to need to stop at Corneria to make my report. Also it would be nice if we could convince Slippy to come along, he'd be able to help you build that machine and get it done a bit faster. I hope that'll be alright."

Blaze smiled and waved his hand at Fox in assurance. "Don't worry about it, as long as I get the help I need I can't complain."

Fox smiled and put a hand on Blaze's shoulder. "Good, but first I'm going to try and get you some different clothes, don't want you to stick out too bad."

* * *

Jensen Ferrier sat in General Pepper's old chair with his feat on the desk and a cigar in his mouth. He took a long drag before addressing the three pilots standing before him. "So my informants tell me that Starfox is an old friend of the old general. If this is so, they must be eliminated; they could cause problems for my new government, No rebellion may be allowed to take place. I have also heard that your team has a history with the Starfox team, and also some of the few pilots to ever survive a fight with them. I will buy you new ships, and give you extra money on the side if you can take them out. Do we have a deal?"

Wolf looked to both Panther and Leon and saw that they were grinning. The money was nice but Wolf wanted the ships so that he could get revenge and he had a pretty good idea that that was what his teammates were thinking as well. "You've got yourself a deal."

Wolf and Jensen shook hands, and Ferrier smiled malevolently. "I'll be in contact with you; I have people searching for them already."

* * *

Blaze walked around in the borrowed flight suit and looked down at himself. "Well it fits well but it looks really weird on me."

Fox smiled. "You'll get used to it. Now come on back to the bridge; we should be within range of Corneria's communications by now."

Blaze and Fox walked down the halls of the GreatFox towards the bridge. They were in no hurry to get there and walked at a leisurely pace. Blaze asked many questions about the ship and its technology, all of which Fox was happy to answer. Blaze's eyes darted around in contented curiosity as he tried to take in all that was around him. "This ship is designed so much differently than ours… Where's that lead?" He pointed to a door at Fox's side.

Fox opened the door and stepped to the side to let Blaze in. "This is the rec. room, it's where we go to unwind between missions, it's got a bunch of fun stuff to do."

Blaze's eyes widened and he ran into the room. "Wow this thing is awesome, what does it do?" Blaze was staring in awe at a virtual reality flight simulator.

Fox smiled at the young fox. "Just jump in and try it out, I'll come back for you later." Fox left as Blaze jumped into the cockpit of the simulator. Fox continued on towards the bridge. _"Wow before that I could hardly even tell how young he was, but I guess no matter how they were brought up kids love video games."_

Fox kept walking down the memorized path to the bridge, he doubted that he would ever forget the way; he had walked it so many times. As he walked he let his mind wander and his thoughts brought him to the recent events that had been anything but usual. It certainly was a strange set of coincidences. Fox stepped onto the bridge to see Krystal talking to R.O.B who was working at a control panel. When Krystal saw Fox walk onto the bridge she beckoned him to her. Fox walked over to her but before either of them could say anything R.O.B spoke. "I am ready to transmit to Slippy on Corneria."

Fox rolled his eyes. "Alright R.O.B." he then turned back to Krystal. "Blaze wanted to check out the flight sim. So I left him in the rec. room."

Krystal smiled and nodded. "Aright. R.O.B you can go ahead and transmit now, I think we're ready."

R.O.B pressed a button on the panel and muttered to himself something that sounded like "About time."

Slippy appeared in front of the group with a look of terror plastered across his face. His face was badly bruised and when he spoke Fox could tell there was something wrong with his jaw. "Fox! Oh I'm so glad to see you're alright!"

Fox stared open-mouthed at Slippy's injuries. "Slippy what happened to you?"

Slippy shook his head. "There's no time, there's so much I need to tell you. General Pepper was assassinated! Corneria has been in panic ever since, and now this nut job Jensen Ferrier came to power. I'm pretty sure he had a hand in Pepper's assassination, but the people have been in such a panic they didn't argue when he took over. In just his first few days as "ruler" he's killed off tons of opposing politicians under the false pretense of treason. He also wants you guys dead. He's already tried to get information out of me. There's no way you guys can come to Corneria. I know a way I can help you guys but…" there was a loud thud on the door of Slippy's apartment and Slippy turned off the comm.

Fox continued to stare at the screen long after Slippy had faded from it. "We need to help Slippy." Fox punched the side of the control panel.

Krystal frowned and held Fox's shoulders. "I know how you feel Fox but you heard Slippy, we're being hunted, it would be a suicide mission."

Fox's head dropped and after a few moments he spoke again in a depressed tone. "Is there any way we can contact Falco?"

R.O.B answered quickly. "I am able to search for the whereabouts of his arwing."

Fox nodded. "Do it, Krystal can you call Blaze up to the bridge, we're not going to be able to help him for awhile with the way things are shaping up."

R.O.B's clicking on the keyboard stopped temporarily. "I have located Falco's arwing, but he is not currently within communication range, his awing is located on Fortuna."

Fox laid back in his chair and sighed. "Alright put us on a course for Fortuna then."

Krystal was suddenly stricken by an immense pain in her head, she clutched at the pain in a futile attempt to suppress the splitting headache. She braced herself on the control panel in front of her. The pain was becoming more intense, and sweat rolled down her face mixing with her newly formed tears. Krystal tried her hardest to wipe her pained expression away, and swiped her wet matted bangs out of her face.

Fox turned his chair to face Krystal. "Hey Krystal are you alright?"

Krystal quickly turned away from him to hide her face. "I - think I need to go lie down…" Krystal walked as calmly as possible across the bridge and as soon as she left broke into a flat out run. As she turned a corner she smacked hard into Blaze, knocking him over.

Blaze watched from the floor as Krystal ran past him. All the color drained from his face, and for a second he could see into Krystal's mind. Blaze jumped up and bolted after her. As he rounded a corner he could see Krystal flash into a doorway, he ran in after her and saw that it was the sparring room.

Krystal had run over to one of the punching bags and began to beat it violently. The punching bag shook hard as Krystal pummeled it with all her strength. Her body was trembling and her veins were popping, her eyes had turned a shade of red.

Blaze could feel the intense rage emanating from her. Krystal's eyes turned to a deep blood red. Blaze ran over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Krystal, what's wrong?"

Krystal turned and glared at him. Blaze's eyes opened wide as Krystal pushed him to the ground. Blaze was winded and rolled over on his side clutching his stomach. When he looked back up Krystal was standing over him with her staff held in her hands pointing down at him like a spear, ready for a downward thrust.

Krystal was ready for the final blow but she did not strike, a look of fear crossed her face and she threw her staff aside, falling to the floor. Blaze was still scared horribly but he got up and looked down at Krystal. She was unconscious but she looked as if she was having a nightmare.

Reluctantly Blaze placed a hand on Krystal's arm. Blaze was transported within Krystal's mind. He didn't enjoy going into people's minds but he needed to find out what was wrong with Krystal. As he examined his surroundings he saw Krystal's mental self lying limp surrounded by white fog.

Blaze ran over to her and saw that she was badly injured, she had cuts all over her body. Blaze had never seen someone with such a horrible mental state. Krystal opened her eyes and looked blankly at Blaze. He was about to speak but Krystal stopped him, she began to speak, not to him but to herself. "I defeated him for now… but…" Krystal trailed off and her mental image disappeared. Blaze was kicked from her mind and he was again kneeling over Krystal in the real world. He checked her vitals and only found a weak pulse. Blaze lifted her into his arms and began to run towards the bridge. He could only hope he wouldn't be too late.

* * *

A/N: sorry about the lack of updates but I've been preoccupied with my junior year and the whole finding out what I'm going to do with my life thing. I hope I can finish this story at some point.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Well, I'm trying to write more now, but I'm also writing another story at the same time so I'm not sure how fast I'll be working on this. Hopefully I'll just keep plugging away until it's done. Enjoy.

* * *

Blaze rushed through the halls toward the bridge. Krystal was lying limp in his arms and the weight was slowing him down. Fox turned as Blaze burst through the bridge doors. Blaze placed Krystal gently on the floor and Fox ran over to her, and knelt beside her. "What happened?" Fox asked, his voice clearly communicating his fear.

Blaze maintained a calm but urgent tone. "I'll explain later, right now she's unconscious and might die if she doesn't get medical attention immediately."

R.O.B walked over to Krystal and placed a cold metallic hand on her arm. Fox and Blaze watched as if in a trance as R.O.B pulled out a syringe and without hesitation injected Krystal with the unknown liquid. "I have injected her with an adrenaline boost that should get her heart going at normal speed again. She seems to have no other medical conditions. She is in a stable condition but I have nothing to do for her unconsciousness."

Fox looked down at Krystal and stared; he couldn't help but wonder what might happen. It was as if there was someone else controlling his mind that had some perverse joy in making him think about the worst possible scenario.

Blaze walked away from Krystal and let himself collapse into a nearby chair. After a few moments Fox looked up at Blaze and asked again, "What happened?"

Blaze sighed and stared into space, avoiding Fox's eyes. "I really don't know how to explain this simply but I think there may be someone else inside Krystal's mind."

Fox looked up at Blaze with obvious disbelief. "There's no way that's true that's not even possible!"

"I bet that's exactly what you thought about telepathy, before you met Krystal."

Fox sighed and turned away.

"I thought so. Anyway the way it seems is that Krystal is fighting this other entity inside her mind. If she loses the other presence will be able to take control, or partial control."

Fox shook his head. "I don't understand how can you know this?"

"Well after Krystal called me down here, she ran into me in the hallway, when she bumped into me I got a small glimpse of what was going on inside her head. It was complete chaos, so of course I was worried. I followed after her and she attacked me. She was about to kill me too, but then she threw away her staff and fell unconscious. I know about stuff like this happening before. It happens when someone has a mental connection with someone else and the connection is broken… incorrectly."

Fox tilted his head, curious. "What exactly do you mean incorrectly?"

Blaze scratched his head thoughtfully. "Well the only way I've ever heard of it being done is when someone dies while the connection is still active. The body dies and there soul takes refuge in the other persons mind."

Fox gaped widely at Blaze, what he was thinking was so out there he couldn't accept it; and Fox could only think of one incident that Blaze could be referring to.

R.O.B suddenly interrupted their conversation. "Incoming fighter's, three ships all wolfens."

Fox cursed Wolf's timing. "R.O.B send them a line, I'm going to need to talk my way through this."

Wolf, Panther, and Leon appeared on the screen in front of him. Wolf smirked at Fox. "Been a while eh Fox?" Fox didn't respond. "I think you know why we're here, I was wondering if Team Starfox could come out and play."

Wolf's wing mates chuckled at their leaders teasing. Fox crossed his arms and looked at Wolf as if he was just a small burden. "So, how much are they paying you Wolf?"

Wolf scowled at Fox. "What's it to you Pup? There's no way you could even get close to matching the kind of money you're head is worth."

Fox pulled an idea from thin air and decided to run with it. "Oh no I wasn't even thinking that I was just wondering how much it cost you to give away you're life."

Wolf laughed. "Are you kidding me, are you making threats? You're in no position to be threatening me; I know that half your team is gone. What do you think you're gonna be able to drop us all by yourself?"

Fox smirked. "No I don't think I could, but I think it's in your best interest as well if you don't take me in. You see I have an informant on the inside that says once you bring me in you will have outlived your usefulness, making you more of a threat then a beneficiary. The new government doesn't have complete control over you and that scares them, once you bring me in they plan on killing you as well, killing two birds with one stone."

Wolf glared at Fox. Fox stood there stoic, with his arms crossed staring right back at Wolf. Wolf finally looked away and spoke quietly to his wing mates. "Let's go I've got to think this over for awhile."

Wolf and Leon disappeared from the screen but Panther remained. He winked at Fox. "When next you see Krystal tell her she has Panther's love." With that the last Starwolf member disappeared from the screen. Outside the GreatFox the three wolfens sped away leaving an uneasy silence on the bridge.

Blaze swallowed hard and spoke to Fox who was still staring at the screen. "I already don't like them; I don't need to telepathic to know how much you hate them."

Fox sighed. "Team Starwolf, mercenaries just like us, but they're also Starfox's bitter rivals. They seem to always be on the opposite side of our objectives; Speaking of which I need to tell you what happened before Krystal ran off the bridge. Corneria, the planet we've always worked for just went under a change of power. The new leader sees our team as a threat to his government. I inferred that that's who they were working for, and seeing how that conversation went I must have been right."

Blaze smiled. "You made all that stuff about the government wanting them dead up, didn't you?"

Fox smiled as well. "Well not all of it, I do have an informant inside their government, but he never told me any of that. I'm just lucky that Wolf isn't too bright, otherwise he would have done his research before coming to us."

Blaze nodded. "So how are we going to get Slippy out of danger?"

Fox rolled his eyes. "Well jeez why don't you just read my mind to find out, you've been doing it enough already. Anyway what I'm planning to do is get Falco and hopefully a few other rebellious pilots to join up to take out the government."

Blaze smiled. "So that guy had good reason to be afraid of you. Needless to say I'm helping out, it's not like I could be doing anything else. Any problem of yours is a problem of mine."

Fox sighed. "I'm sorry that I had to bring you into this."

Blaze shrugged his shoulders. "You've got to remember that when I came into this dimension I was expecting it to be ruled by Andross, seeing how you already took care of that for me the least I could do is help you out with this. Besides you also said you would help me try to save the others from the other dimension; that means a lot to me."

Fox put a hand on Blaze's shoulder. "Well then make sure that I get you some flying lessons. I'm glad to call someone as courageous as you my ally. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to bring Krystal to the infirmary. I won't be long." Fox lifted Krystal up into his arms and walked to the bridge doors, making sure to be as careful as possible with his precious cargo.

Blaze looked back to the front of the bridge and then started to stare off into space. His mind began to wander back to an old memory of when he was a young child.

_His Mother stood over him and looked down at him severely. "Blaze what have I told you about going into the labs?" _

_Blaze was about eight years old at the time of the memory. The young Cerinian cast his eyes downward, trying to look interested in a piece of dirt clinging to his sandal. Cerinians wore sandals year round, since the average temperature was much higher than on Corneria. "I'm sorry Ma but I just really want to see what's going on in there. The stuff you guys bring out is just so cool."_

_The mother smiled, she couldn't be angry at the curious child for long. "Would you like to see what it is we were making?"_

_Blaze's eyes lit up. "Of course I do!"_

_Blaze's mother reached into a pouch on her hip and pulled out a beautiful golden necklace. The necklace was made of short golden strips so that it would bend and in the front of it was a deep blue gem surrounded by golden casing. Blaze stared at the necklace in wonder. "What does it do?"_

_His Mother let out a short chuckle. "To be honest I have no idea. It just came to me in a dream that I should make this. It also happens that in my dream I gave this to you, so here you go. Although I don't know what it does, the least it will do is be a good luck charm for you."_

_Blaze took the necklace and immediately put it on. His mother nodded approvingly. Blaze wondered if he had ever smiled so hard in his entire life. _

Blaze shook himself from his memory and pulled the same necklace from his pants pocket. He looked into the strange blue gem and wondered of its significance, other than reminding him of his mother. He kissed the gem for good luck and put the necklace around his neck, clasping it at the back.

R.O.B broke Blaze's reverent silence with a string of facts. "Falco's arwing is no longer located on Fortuna; it is now on route to the GreatFox. It is now within communication range, and will be in direct contact in approximately 15 minutes. I am receiving a communications link."

Blaze looked around to see if Fox had come back without him noticing. Seeing no one but himself on the bridge he decided to reply. "Err… send it through." Blaze said in more of a question than a statement.

Falco appeared on the screen in front of him. "Yo Fo- wait, who the hell are you?!"

Blaze really didn't want to get into the details. "I'm a friend of Fox and Krystal's."

Falco shrugged. "Alright whatever, whenever you see Fox next tell him I'm coming and for him to give me a ring."

Just as Falco was about to end the conversation, Fox walked through the door and onto the bridge. Fox was very surprised to see Falco on the screen right as he walked in. "Whoa hey Falco you've come at a really great time."

Falco sighed. "I'm guessing you heard about what happened on Corneria then."

Fox nodded. "Not only that, but Krystal's also out of it and Starwolf may be hunting after us."

Falco groaned. "Okay well I've got some bad news for you too buddy, just before all that crap on Corneria went down, Katt decided to fly there. I'm guessing you know that Slippy is there as well. Oh yeah but I do have some good news, there is an outpost of people that oppose the new government stationed on Katina, and you're gonna love this, the leader of that group is Bill Grey."

Fox smiled. "Well that is great but I'm afraid team Starfox may not hold much sway when we only have two able bodied pilots to work with."

Falco smirked. "When those pilots are you and me, I think we'll be good. By the way care to tell me the story of the Krystal gender-bender over there?"

Fox sighed. "It's long and complicated. How about you just wait till you get on board to hear this, I'm not sure if you'll believe me anyway."

Falco shrugged "Alright then I'll see ya soon." Falco's image disappeared from the screen.

Blaze looked at Fox with a very serious look on his face. "What is a gender-bender?"

Fox couldn't help but smile. "Don't worry about it, it's no big deal."

* * *

A/N: lol gender-bender. That chapter was faster than a lot of my others recently, although I really wish it wasn't taking me so long to get to some hardcore action. And totally off topic, if you know any good metal bands that aren't too well known please tell me I need some new stuff to listen to. Check out my profile to see the kind of bands I like for reference. Hoping this story will go to 20 chapters. Although at this rate I would never finish that. SUMMER HERE I COME!!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Okey-Dokey trying to get back in the swing of things again. Hopefully I can focus, I just got Pokémon mystery dungeon for my birthday. Hope this will be a good chapter.

* * *

Falco pulled his arwing into the Greatfox and shut down his arwing. He massaged his temples and remained in the cockpit. He didn't bother to tell Fox the details about why Katt had flown to Corneria, Partially because it would have been a long story and also partially because he felt guilty about it. Falco thought about how he was going to explain it and eventually decided he would have to tell him the truth. _"Well it's not like Fox will care that much anyway. Hmm I wonder what he meant about Krystal being out of it."_

Fox entered the flight deck and walked over to Falco's arwing. "Hey, you gonna just sit in there all day?"

Falco unbuckled himself from the harnesses and jumped out of the cockpit onto the metal floor of the flight deck. "So how much have you missed me?"

Fox smiled. "Never as much as I did before you called, things are really messed up around here."

Falco frowned. "Huh, you're telling me. How bout we go somewhere more comfortable so we can tell each other our life stories."

Fox nodded. "Good idea. I already set us on course for Titania so let's head down to the sick bay, that's where Krystal is anyway and I wanted to see how she was doing."

The two pilots exited the flight deck and began walking towards the sick bay. Falco sighed. "Alright might as well start talking now; you go first, tell me what's up with Krystal."

Fox paused. "Well long story short, Krystal has someone inside her head trying to control her. Right now she's unconscious because of the stress. You follow?"

Falco smiled. "Yeah I get the words; it's the meaning that's giving me trouble. I thought Krystal was usually the one getting into other people's heads, now you're telling me someone else is trying to do the same to her?"

Fox nodded. "Pretty much, but the way it was explained to me… well I'm not totally sure but the way Blaze said it made it seem like the one inside her head is Andross."

Falco stopped dead. "You're joking with me right? We just killed him."

Fox shook his head and sighed. "No, I wish I was kidding but that's the only way it makes sense to me. Come on we're really close to the sick bay, hurry up."

The pilots entered the sick bay and saw Krystal laying on one of the beds. Blaze was standing beside her looking very concerned. Blaze looked surprised when they came in. "Oh hey, I just wanted to be sure nothing bad happened while no one was here with her."

Fox smiled at the young fox. "Thank you very much. Has she shown any signs of waking yet?"

Blaze frowned and stared at the ground as he shook his head. Fox sighed. "I really hope she gets up soon, I'm really starting to get afraid. Anyway so what else do I need to fill you in about?"

"Well how bout we start with who is that?" Falco pointed at Blaze. "Is he like Krystal and your child from the future or something? He's either Cerinian or he has a really odd taste in fashion."

Blaze walked over to Falco and shook his hand. "My name's Blaze and yes I am Cerinian, and no I'm not from the future. I come from a different dimension where me and a few others fled to survive the gravity bomb used by Andross on our planet. I met Fox and Krystal when I first came to this side. They said they'd help me save the rest of my friends from the other dimension, but now that all this other stuff happened I guess I'm helping them first."

Falco shrugged. "Alright well I only got one very important question. Do you know how to fly a ship?"

"Well I know how to fly "a" ship, not specifically the one's here. I'm sure I could pick them up quickly though if you give me a shot."

Falco shrugged. "Alright, good enough for me. Well I guess it's my turn for story time, eh? Hmm where to start… Well I guess it starts when I left the Greatfox after we defeated Andross the last time. I left to try to find Katt and I followed her ship to Fortuna, I'll just say we didn't get along great when I was there so she left to fly back to Corneria. That's when the take over happened. Pretty much everyone there who could help us including Katt is grounded, and probably in danger too. I really don't have much to tell you about the rebellion group on Titania, all I heard was they're there and they're trying to regain control of Corneria eventually, right now they're too small to do anything."

Fox nodded. "I understand. Falco, why don't you take Blaze down to the flight sim and try to teach him the basics. You're our ace pilot, so don't give me crap about how I should be the one doing it."

Falco scowled at him. "Well what would give you the idea that I would do anything like that?" Falco made an obscene gesture as Fox turned away. "Alright come on then, Blaze. Nice name by the way."

Falco and Blaze left the room and Fox was left alone with Krystal. Fox sat down beside Krystal's bed, he stared down at Krystal; it looked as if she was sleeping and Fox thought it was hard to believe she was unconscious, fighting a battle inside her head. Fox put his hand over hers; he thought for a second he could see a smile starting to appear but he dismissed it as a trick of the light. _"Keep fighting Krystal; I know you can make it… I really wish you could be with me right now."_

Fox suddenly felt a warm fuzzy feeling in his head as if he had been sitting for a long time and then stood up too fast. He could hear a faint voice but he couldn't register much else. The foggy feeling in his mind left and as he looked around all he could see was darkness, then the faint call again. Fox felt as though it was coming from in front of him so he began to run towards the sound. The fuzzy feeling started to come back and the infirmary started to come back into view. Just as he was coming back to reality he heard Krystal's voice. "I am with you, don't worry about me. Do what you need to do." Krystal sounded tired and her voice gently faded out.

Fox was completely returned to reality. He looked down at Krystal expectantly but she showed no sign of motion. Fox noticed that his hand was now covered by Krystal's; he smiled and bent down to kiss Krystal's cheek. He was sure this time; a smile was definitely there for a moment.

* * *

Wolf paced back and forth across the floor of the Sargasso hideout. Panther and Leon sat nearby but did nothing to interrupt their boss. Wolf suddenly yelled out to no one in particular. "How can I know if he's lying or not?! If he's lying I'm missing out on the biggest paycheck of my life and if he's telling the truth we die!"

Panther gained enough confidence to speak up. "Well Panther is unsure of you too but Panther definitely enjoys life over money. If we are alive we can always make money later."

Wolf turned on Panther. "Oh yeah, well no one asked Panther! Stop speaking in third person it's real irritating!"

Leon decided to speak up as well. "You're right Boss but Panther's as right as he is annoying. If we're alive we can always make money later. As a matter of fact we could lend our services to the rebels, as up tight as they are we still got a good amount of odd jobs here and there. Plus if we help them we could be very influential when it comes to starting the new government; as in immunity."

Wolf smiled at Leon. "Well it's good to see someone is finally thinking in this stupid place. I like that idea, even if it does mean we'll need to wait to get revenge on Starfox. We can take them out any day." Wolf pulled a communicator out of his pocket and opened a channel. "Alright Jake, we made up our minds we're going to be heading to Titania. Keep tabs on things here, and if you see any government ships make them go missing, I don't want us to be linked to it." Wolf put the communicator away and smiled malevolently at his partners. "Time for a little trip, hopefully we'll get some action soon."

* * *

Falco and Blaze walked onto the bridge and Fox turned to them. "So how did it go?"

Falco smiled and put a hand on Blaze's shoulder. "This kid could be a great pilot some day. Once he got the basics down he was flying decently already. Plus he's got crazy reaction speed, like me. On the training course he was able to fly through two hundred and thirty of the two hundred and fifty rings and downed fifty seven ships without taking a hit; I'd say that's pretty good considering Slippy still can't go through the whole thing without taking a hit."

Blaze smiled nervously and itched the back of his head. "It's really not as good as he said; I'm still picking up the controls."

Fox smiled. "Don't try to lower that achievement; there are people that come out of the academy who don't do as well as you did, and they've had years of experience. It sounds like Falco's right; you could be a great Pilot."

"We are being hailed from the Titania base." R.O.B said, but instead of waiting for a response he put the signal through.

A grey husky appeared on the screen. As soon as he appeared he went from looking anxious to relieved. "Oh wow I'm glad to see you guys are alright, I heard you guys were going to be some of the first to be hunted down. It's good to see you made it here in one piece."

Fox smirked. "Well well Bill, it's not like you to be such a worry wart, we can take care of ourselves you know. I'm going to go ahead and guess we have clearance to land."

Bill smiled at his old friend. "Well of course. You're lucky too; we just drove away an enemy strike force a little while ago so the space should be clear. They don't know yet that this is our main stronghold. We've been bringing a lot of people in the past couple of days, news has traveled fast and luckily anyone who wasn't stationed on Corneria had a good chance of getting away. Katina was locked down an hour after I left."

Fox nodded. "Yeah but unluckily enough, we've still got valuable people there, if you don't mind me saying I think that's got to be one of our focuses."

"I totally agree with you, but I've been trying to think of a way to get them out for quite some time but I just don't see anyway to do it, without taking heavy losses that is. How about you get down here and we can discuss this more?" Bill asked.

Fox agreed. "Alright I'll see you on the surface then." Fox said as the image dissipated from the screen.

* * *

Katt fired off both blasters rapidly and they kicked hard. She ran backwards through the doorway and kicked it shut behind her. She turned around and started to run as fast as she could down the fire escape. Her breath was becoming laborious and her heart was pounding harder than ever. A few shots flew past her as she leapt over the back end of the last flight of stairs; she hit the ground in a roll and sprang out of it still running. She knew it wasn't much farther but the pounding of her legs kept weakening, she knew she shouldn't have taken those few extra weeks of vacation time. A shot clipped her leg and she tumbled to the ground. The two that were following her walked casually to where she was lying. Katt flipped over onto her back and pointed a pistol at each of them. "So you boys think you got me do you? Well I'm not done yet! You take one step closer and you're dead!"

One of the pursuers smirked at the Feline and made a big showing of taking another step towards her. Katt trembled and pointed both guns at this one. Suddenly out of nowhere a giant red streak burst through the man's head. He fell backward almost onto the other man. After seeing his partner being taken out from seemingly nowhere, the last living pursuer lost his nerve and ran backwards to where he came from. He too was struck sown by the red streak.

Katt strained herself to stand. Looking down at the body left lying in front of her she grimaced and pulled out a communicator. "Thanks for the help but did you really need to use the high caliber rounds? This guy hardly has a head left." Katt paused. "Yeah I know. No I'm not hurt that bad, I can get back to base. Yeah I got the Intel; I should be back in a few minutes." Katt walked gingerly out of the alleyway and disappeared down the street.

* * *

A/N: Cool, this was more of a chapter that I needed to include, but it turned out that I really enjoyed it. Be prepared for a lot more action to come. Also big thanks to Fennessey for editing for me, caught a few typing errors as well as a few grammar mistakes. Working on the next chapter already; looking forward to next time.

- F.A.E


	6. Chapter 6

L

L.O.S chapter 6

A/N: Trying to keep the creative juices flowing, so I'm trying to update quickly. I'm thinking over the summer I may start two new projects, rewriting both Mercenaries log and Time off? Don't have much else to say other than I hope you enjoy the chapter.

* * *

Slippy Toad sat down next to a militant looking greyhound. They swapped furtive glances and Slippy sighed; he could tell by the look on his face that there was no word. "What do you think is holding her up Sam?"

The Doberman cleared his throat. "I have no idea, but remember; if something went wrong we would have heard of that as well; no news may well be good news." Sam spoke in a very deliberate manner; he seemed to think carefully before he spoke.

Slippy pondered this for a second. "Hmm well I guess your right, but I can't help but feel as if something went wrong. What if she couldn't get the Intel? We can't last here for much longer; we need to get off Corneria."

Sam glared at Slippy. "Don't you think I know that? I know exactly what needs to be done, but there's nothing else you or I could do now." Sam coughed and changed his look back to a friendly smile. "Besides I have faith that Katt can get the job done, she never failed a mission in her career with the military."

Slippy sighed. "I can only hope she keeps up her winning streak, not only for the information, but also I know what would happen if she were caught." Slippy looked around the room, and for a second tried to count the number of screws in the ceiling, but he soon decided it was an impossible task.

The entire room was built with rusted metal that seemed as if it had come fresh from a metal dump. Slippy was depressed at the absence of light, windows were not considered important when the building was built. The only light in the room came from a computer monitor that had been left on.

A young Terrier burst through the door and nodded to Slippy and Sam. "Sir, Katt has arrived at the base and she has more information than we could have asked for! I h…"

The Terrier was ready to continue but Sam held up a hand to silence him. "We'll be right there; it would be better for us to hear the first hand account." Sam looked over to Slippy. "C'mon friend let's see how Katt made out." With that Slippy and Sam left the room, leaving the young soldier standing there, feeling quite foolish.

Katt was standing in the middle of a bunch of the younger soldiers that sided against the new Cornerian government. Katt grimaced, she really just wanted to relay her information to get on with it, but she didn't want to dampen the spirits of all the young soldiers. Just when Katt was about to tell them all to get lost Sam and Slippy entered the room and scattered the soldiers. Katt sighed. "Thanks so much for that, I thought I was going to be smothered by all of them."

Sam smiled. "It's good to see you made it back okay."

Slippy was almost jumping with happiness. "Oh I was so worried; I thought something had gone wrong, I am so glad you made it back okay!"

Katt smiled awkwardly. "Well it wasn't **that** dangerous, especially since you gave me those snipers as support."

Sam nodded. "That's good, how about you make your report and we'll here all about how easy it was."

Katt nodded and instantly became strictly business. "Yes Sir, the air ducts were a good point of entry and I encountered minimal resistance to the lab. There I learned everything necessary for our mission and more. I learned that they are planning on sending out large troupes to sweep over all of Corneria in search of this base. This plan takes effect tomorrow. Conveniently for us there will be a guard shift in the main hanger at oh nine hundred hours. The extra information I obtained is that there is a large rebel base located on Titania that would be the primal destination if our plan succeeds. I encountered moderate resistance on my escape and came back here. That is all I have to report."

Sam smiled. "Thank you Katt, you did a very nice job, and I agree with you that the base on Titania would be a great destination. All we have to do now is alert the rest of the base of our plan and make sure they're ready for the morning."

Slippy smiled. "Ya know when I think about it it's been a while since I had a real mission like this. I remember I used to get so afraid before missions but know I'm just excited!"

Sam smiled at the energetic toad. "Don't work yourself up so much you can't sleep, we're going to need you to be in top form tomorrow."

* * *

Jensen Ferrier was sitting in his office looking out the large window behind his computer desk. _"It's hard for me to believe that all of Corneria is mine, then again it technically isn't, I still need to crush the rest of the feeble resistance that's being put up. After I gain complete control over Corneria I can finally start looking to other planets, especially the rebel base on Titania."_

A Husky in a business suit walked into the room and Jensen turned his chair to face the man. "Sir, there has been a breach of security."

Ferrier scowled at the man. "And has the responsible party been detained?"

The husky paused and tried hard not to look into the eyes of the enraged leader. "N-no sir she escaped, and inflicted two casualties, one dead and another wounded."

"She? I'm guessing the one who was injured was able to identify the individual, the one who was left alive must know what the person came here for, and did he tell you why?" Jensen asked lightening his tone so as not to intimidate the husky too much.

The husky nodded emphatically. "Yes sir, he said that she did not take anything, therefore it is assumed that she came for intelligence."

Ferrier pondered this information for a second. "I would like to see the injured man in my office as soon as possible. Also I want the date on operation death squad moved forward to tomorrow at oh seven hundred hours. You are dismissed."

The man saluted and walked out of the room to do his job. Jensen was in a very bad mood from this information. "Humph whatever that one learned from us won't have time to help those rebels; I'll have them all dead by tomorrow."

* * *

Fox and Bill walked out of Bill's office heavy spirited. There seemed to be nothing they could do, they were nowhere near strong enough to challenge the new government and they had no idea how they were going to rescue those that were trapped on Corneria.

Fox sighed. "I feel so powerless; what are we supposed to do?"

"I suppose the only thing we can do is wait. I'm not so familiar with how Corneria is set up defensively, having been stationed on Katina for so long, so I've been sending out scouts for low danger recon missions. They haven't been bringing back any useful information; what we really need is a highly trained force on Corneria, we can't challenge their air superiority but I think a few highly trained fighters on the surface could be just what we need."

Fox nodded. "That could really help, only problem is, how are we supposed to land on enemy soil without heavy casualties?"

Fox and Bill entered the docking bay where Falco was showing Blaze the ins and outs of the arwing. Bill shrugged. "That is the only problem I've had so far, but I have thought of something that could work, it's very high risk though."

Fox looked curiously at Bill. "Well, what is it?"

Bill sighed well I was thinking that we could take a large portion of our force here and fly it out near Corneria so that they think we are looking for a fight, they will likely think that it is our entire force and bring the majority of their force to come meet us. Before they come into range we will begin to retreat, they will think we lost nerve seeing their force. Then, and this is the most dangerous part of the plan we fly through the wormhole located near the asteroid belt, it will spit us out near here, if we're lucky. That would give you and a few select others time to get onto Corneria."

Fox gaped. "There's no way you could do that, there's a huge chance that you just wouldn't reappear at all! If we did that we could be left with no chance at all!"

Blaze walked over to the two. "Actually I know how you can get through a wormhole no problem. They were common transportation devices for the Cerinians."

Bill was slightly awed at this statement. "Really, and you're sure that this will work?"

Blaze smiled. "Well of course I wouldn't have said it unless I could do it. As long as you can give me the materials I can build it."

Bill still seemed slightly reluctant. Fox decided to speak up for Blaze. "I can vouch for him Bill, he knows what he's talking about."

Bill seemed assured by this. "Well alright then, it's settled. You will begin to build whatever it is will make this safe and then we can put the plan into action."

Blaze nodded. "Just one thing though Sir, I want to be part of the team that lands on Corneria, I want to see action!"

Bill again seemed reluctant. "You're too young and inexperienced; I can't send you on such an important mission."

Fox yet again stood up for the young Cerinian. "Actually Bill he's part of Starfox so if you're sending us you're sending him as well."

Bill grumbled. "Fine do what you need to do, Blaze you need to come with me, I'll take you to the labs, to start work right away."

As Blaze and Bill were about to walk away Fox put a hand on Blaze's shoulder. "I'll be the mind reader this time. You're welcome. Just make sure I don't regret it later on."

* * *

A pit-bull walked into Jensen Ferrier's office, he was clutching the side of his head where the sniper round glanced him. He was lucky to be alive; he was struck on the side of the head and he fell forward, avoiding further injury.

Jensen signaled for him to sit down in the chair in front of him. "I heard that you and another chased an intruder out of our base and failed to apprehend her."

The pit-bull cringed; this conversation was not going to be fun for him. "Yes Sir, that is correct."

The intimidating leader scowled at him fiercely. "I'll hear your side of it first, and you better have something good to tell me."

The scared guard swallowed hard. "Well, me and the other guard that got shot worked the same route. We were followin' the route just like normal till we saw a cat lady workin' on one of the computers. We were suspicious so we asked her for identification then she just bolted. Naturally we ran after her, we followed her out of the building and got a shot to hit her leg, she fell down and we thought we had her but then… Well, that's when my partner got shot, he was shot from nowhere. Then I got hit on the side of the head and got stunned from it." The dull guard pointed to the spot where he was hit as if the blood coming from it was not a good enough indicator.

Jensen nodded. "Well your story seems to be true enough, except for one thing you left out. You seem to have forgotten that before you were shot you attempted to run away. I can't stand cowards, especially not in my ranks!"

The pit-bull was sweating profusely and tried to sound as indignant as he could. "I never tried to run away! I swear I was shot and I got knocked out!"

Ferrier stood up and glowered at the guard. "A liar and an idiot! You must know about the cameras placed outside of the building, you have to watch them! Now I have two reasons to kill you!"

"N-no please Sir don't kill me, I swear it will never happen again." The pit-bull pleaded. "Please just don't kill me, I will do anything!"

Jensen pulled a blaster pistol out of his desk and aimed it at the man's head, ignoring his pleading. Just before he took the shot he switched to a stunning shot. The shot connected with the pit-bull and his body shook for a moment before going limp.

Jensen pushed a button on his desk and spoke into the speaker. "Get someone up here; I need someone to take this guard down to the torture chambers." Jensen smiled to himself. "Well sir you did say anything but death, I wonder how you will like what I have in mind."

* * *

A/N: I promise that there will be action in the next chapter! As a matter of fact I can think of no way around it at this point. Hoping for another chapter before school ends.

-F.A.E


	7. Chapter 7

Lights Outcast Shadows Chapter 7

Katt shifted in bed restlessly, she hadn't been able to sleep for longer than an hour all night. The day ahead of her was weighing heavy on her mind. She looked over at the clock resting on a metal shelf beside her cot. Six thirty, Katt cursed under her breath. _"I'm not going to get any sleep like this; I might as well just get up and get ready."_ Slowly Katt rose from bed, her neck and back were aching from the uncomfortable cot. She could hear other people speaking in the room adjacent to her. She suspected they were a few young soldiers who had yet to see battle and were hyped up over this. Katt stretched out and let out a long yawn. _"Of course, when I get out of bed I start getting tired again."_

Katt looked down at herself. _"I better get myself changed; I don't want anyone coming in while I'm in my pajamas."_ Katt changed into her flight suit, which she used in ground combat as well as in the cockpit. She liked the freedom of movement, and it wasn't like she'd be able to fight in any of the bulky chest protectors that the regular soldiers wear; she prefers to avoid getting shot rather than rely on a piece of metal to save her life. Katt walked out of her room and down the barrack's main hallway, she could hear quiet chatter behind many of the doors she passed and thought back to her younger years.

"_Back then I was so rebellious, I didn't want to fly under Corneria because that was too mainstream for me, instead I had to go and become a solo mercenary. Although if I had it my way I never would have had to fly solo…" _Katt hated the memory but it surfaced again, against her will. _Katt was awaiting a call at her home and she just couldn't seem to occupy herself with anything; the anticipation was too great. Then the phone rang, Katt scrambled to pick it up, almost falling over the sofa as she did so. "Hello."_

_The voice on the other side was very familiar to her, it was Sam her flight instructor from the academy. "Hello Katt, I'm sorry to call with bad news like this but… they didn't accept you."_

_Katt's throat tightened and she felt as though she was going to cry. There was a long pause and Katt finally asked. "Did they say why?"_

_Sam sighed. "Yes they said that although you're a great pilot they didn't think that you were right for the team. I'm really sorry."_

"_It's alright it's not your fault, obviously, they said I was a good enough pilot." Katt spoke calmly despite the fact that tears were flowing down her face. I'll just make my own team; they're the ones missing out." Katt hung up the phone and ran to her room, she was crying hysterically at this point. _

Katt walked into the mess hall and the only person there was Sam. Sam was leaning against the serving counter, when Katt walked in he looked up from his cup and motioned for her to come to him. Katt walked over to him but before addressing him she went straight for the coffee maker on the counter. Sam smiled. "Day doesn't start until the first cup."

Katt smiled and took a sip of the steaming liquid. "Not usually, but today is different, I'm tired as all hell; I didn't sleep a wink."

Sam nodded. "Me either, but thinking of what we have to do today is really unsettling." The canine put his cup down on the counter and sighed. "I'm really worried Katt. I know that something will go wrong, there's no way we can sneak this many people into an important building like that and expect to come out with a ship."

Katt frowned at the depressed Doberman. "Come on Sam, that's no way to think, if that's the way you feel than we'll stand no chance. Besides we've got surprise on our side."

"I suppose you're r-- Wait did you hear that?" A huge thump sound reverberated through the room followed by an intense blaring siren. The siren wailed throughout the base, waking up most of the soldiers. "Oh no that's the alarm for a code blue! Attack by stronger force, retreat necessary!"

Katt started to run back down to the barracks. "I need to get my weapons, get as many people to follow you out the back way as you can! We can outrun them on the JPTs!" Katt kept running, ignoring the screams of protest from Sam. As she ran into the barrack's main hallway there were hundreds of soldiers trying to get out. She pushed through as many as she could eventually seeing the entrance to her room. She rammed her shoulder into the door, knocking it over. The safe-box where she held her belongings was still open from when she changed outfits; for once her carelessness helped her out.

As she was pulling her two blaster pistols out Slippy walked through the door. "Hey Katt, let's get going, quick!"

Katt nodded and ran back into the main hallway which was already evacuated. A huge explosion rocked the building. Katt and Slippy were thrown off their feet and into the wall. Katt looked at the back end of the hallway and saw a gaping hole in it, on the other side was the Cornerian military. "No!" Katt jumped up and pulled Slippy to his feet. Suddenly another explosion sounded and the roof above them gave way. Katt was hit hard by a large chunk of metal and everything went black.

Sam was in the back of the last remaining JPT. A young soldier yelled to him. "Sir we need to go now! We don't stand a chance here!"

Sam was watching the back exit intently, oblivious to the destruction and chaos around him. "No we need to stay a little longer; Katt and Slippy aren't back yet."

Just as he finished speaking the back door opened but to his horror Cornerian infantry began to surge out. Sam grabbed a chain gun off the back of the JPT and kicked down the tailgate. "Drive!" just as the JPT started its engine Sam jumped off the back to meet the soldiers. "Eat this, traitors!" Sam's chain gun opened up on the soldiers that had come out the door, shredding through them quickly. The soldiers fell like rag dolls to the stream of giant ripping laser blasts. Sam continued to fire on the door even when it was apparent that no more soldiers were coming out, when he ran out of ammo he threw the gun at the door, shattering it. The soldiers inside had no time to react, Sam came bursting through the empty door frame and landed a jaw-splitting punch to one of the soldiers. When he went down the rest of the soldiers aimed and opened fire on Sam. A few shots hit their mark but the adrenaline in Sam's body kept him going. Blood flowed from his leg and his chest but was ignored by the enraged canine. He grabbed the rifle away from one guard and smacked him in the face with the back end of it. Sam fired into the crowd of guards and was met with a huge volley of return fire. Sam fell to the floor from the many hits, blood was pouring from his body like a fountain. As his life flowed out of him he muttered one thing. "Katt." Then a soldier put his rifle to Sam's face.

Katt's head was swimming; she felt as though she had just been spun around too fast. Memories were slow in coming to her. She felt an immense pain in her head and felt the spot. When she touched the spot it hurt even more, when she pulled her hand away there was blood on it. That's when she remembered what happened. She looked around for Slippy over the rubble but couldn't see him anywhere. When she tried to stand to search for him she realized that she was buried waste deep in rubble herself. She tried to call out for Slippy but her throat was layered with thick dust and all she managed was a weak wheeze. The pain in her head became stronger and her vision began to fade. She fought her eyelids from closing but she again fell into unconsciousness.

When Katt woke again she didn't open her eyes, her head was already pounding and she didn't want to put further strain on her mind. She felt the wound on her head but to her surprise it was covered in a bandage. Katt opened her eyes and noticed she was no longer in the rubble of the base, she couldn't recognize where she was, it was a small room. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all made of very rough wood, the wooden planks were attached in a very unprofessional manner and there was a gap left open in front of her that was most likely used as a window. Katt tried to stand to look out the window but when she did so a sharp pain pierced her right leg. She looked down at it and saw it was in a homemade brace, also wrapped with bandages. _"What now? I don't know where I am and I can't move. I guess the only thing I can do is wait here."_

Although Katt didn't particularly like staying in one place so long, especially when there were so many things on her mind, she had to admit that this place was very peaceful. The sun shone in through the window and the warmth felt comforting. Katt could hear the birds chirping outside. A wind blew by the ragtag structure causing it to sway and creak.

Then something broke the peace, Katt could hear a thumping sound below her. She reached for her guns but didn't see them anywhere. The thumping got closer and Katt braced herself. Then a piece of the wooden floor popped up and shifted aside allowing for a bag to be tossed up onto the floor. Slippy looked over the floor and almost fell from surprise. "Oh Katt you're awake, how are you feeling?"

Katt sighed. "A lot better now that I know I'm with a friend. I was worried someone else might have been coming. Would you mind explaining where we are, and how we got here?"

Slippy pulled himself up onto the floor and put the wooden door back over the opening. "Alright, first off, what happened was we were running from the Cornerian military after they found our base way earlier than expected. Well we both got hit by the falling roof after an explosion and we were presumed dead by the troops, so they left us there so they could keep chasing the others. I was lucky, I only got covered in a small layer of metal, and I never lost consciousness. When the soldiers left I checked you, and you were buried up to your waist and unconscious. Then I pried the stuff off of you with a crowbar and brought you here."

Katt nodded. "Alright, well, where exactly is here; and what's in the bag?"

"I'm getting there." Slippy said exasperatedly. "Well this is a… tree-house."

Katt frowned. "I'm injured and we're both wanted by the government and you hide us in… a tree-house?"

Slippy smiled. "Yup, isn't it genius? Why would the government ever think to check a tree-house? Besides Fox, Falco, and I built this thing when we were young; it was the only safe place I could think of on the spot."

Katt shook her head. "Fine, I guess it'll work well enough. So what's in the bag, oh yeah and what's with my leg?"

"Well your leg is broken, which is going to make it really hard to travel." Slippy gave a shrug as if to say sorry. "And in the bag is all the stuff that I could gather together that could be useful to us. Like a fire starter, canteen, your guns, and a bit of food. That was all I could find."

"What are we taking a trek through the desert? Why do we need to travel? It's not like we know anywhere to go, we don't even know where the rest of the group went or if they even got away." Katt winced at the thought of the JPTs getting shot at by the military.

Slippy winced as well; he just remembered something he had found during his search around the ruined base, he didn't know how he was going to tell Katt. "Umm Katt, it doesn't look good, Sam… he's dead."

This hit Katt like a freight train. "Sam can't be dead I just talked to him, he… no he can't be." Katt couldn't take it, she hadn't cried in years, but she did now. Slippy tried his best to comfort her but Katt cried out years of sadness.

* * *

Katt sat in the tree-house she felt shell-shocked; Sam had been her mentor and probably her best friend. Slippy sat down beside her and tried to find the right things to say. "Katt, I know how sad this is for you, I was sad too, but we still have to finish our mission. We can still take the aircraft and escape Corneria!"

Katt hardly even acknowledged Slippy. "If that's what you think is best I'll go, but I can't make any promises with how useful I'll be. I have a broken leg, and that's not even the worst of what's wrong with me."

Slippy was very worried about Katt who was usually full of self-confidence, but he knew that first thing they needed was to get off the planet. "Alright then we better get going soon, the guard shift is about to take place; lucky for us we're not too far from the capital building now."

Katt took her pistols out of the bag and tossed one to Slippy. She struggled to stand but once she got up she wasn't in that much pain. "Let's go, hopefully I can kill a good few of those bastards before we leave."

* * *

A/N: Decided to have only one author's note from now on. I initially didn't plan on having this chapter focus on Katt but my writing just flowed that way. I kind of wish Sam didn't die, I liked him but that's just the way the story went. Hope you enjoyed.

-F.A.E


	8. Chapter 8

Lights outcast shadows chapter 8

Blaze sat in the laboratory Bill showed him, racking his brains over the device he was trying to create. He hadn't thought about it before but it had been quite some time since he last built much of anything. The various metals and machine parts he had asked for were laid out in front of him. Blaze sighed, starting off was always the hardest part. Right as he began to pick up one of the pieces a high pitched beeping was sent through the room. Blaze covered his ears. _"What was that?" _The high pitched beep continued, Blaze thought his ears would begin to bleed. Then Blaze had an epiphany, he remembered when Fox was showing him around the Greatfox he told him that a high pitched noise like this meant danger. Blaze dashed out of the room. _"I need to go find Fox to see what's going on."_

* * *

Katt and Slippy stood directly in front of an air duct, the same one that Katt used in her first entrance. Slippy looked down at Katt's leg pityingly. "You should go first, that way if you get stuck I can help you."

Katt nodded. "Alright I'll go first then." Katt holstered her pistol and sized up the air duct. It was slightly higher than her hips. Katt placed her palms down on the bottom of the duct and hoisted herself up and into the opening. Being on her hands and knees was more painful than she expected; her broken leg hung uselessly behind her. She scooted herself along in the air duct so that Slippy had enough room to get in, and then stopped to allow him to catch up.

Slippy did like Katt did and pulled himself into the shaft. Katt spoke to him in a whisper. "Let's try not to talk as much as possible, sound travels pretty well up here. Whisper if you really have to say something."

"Yup, no problem." Slippy whispered back.

Katt continued down the metal shaft slowly, making sure she made as little noise as possible. The metal was cold to the point where she was almost shivering. Her leg wasn't giving her as much trouble as before. They shifted their way through the metal shaft for what seemed like an eternity.

Slippy was beginning to get really hungry. He closed his eyes from the hunger pains and clutched his stomach for a second. When he opened his eyes Katt was still in the same spot as when he closed his eyes. "Hey Katt w--."

"Shh listen." Katt whispered. She was directly above a grate looking into Jensen Ferrier's office. There was another man in the room with him, probably a high ranking officer considering how he was dressed.

Jensen stood out of his chair. "Are you questioning me commander?"

The man shook visibly. "Not questioning sir, I am merely… wondering what it is you are planning by sending such a small force to Titania."

Jensen frowned. "I don't pay you to wonder, but I'll give you the condensed version. I sent those soldiers to Titania to scope out their force. I have a few whose job it is to stay back and get an idea of how many fighters they have. That way I'll know exactly what I'm dealing with here."

The commander gaped. "But sir, what if they totally outnumber the soldiers you sent?"

Jensen shrugged. "What do I care? They'll have done their job by then, let them die."

Katt was enraged by the man's maliciousness. Completely out of impulse she struck the grate she was leaning over, and then pulled out her pistol. She fired down at Jensen through the opening. Jensen was startled when the grate fell from the sky, but regained his composure and dove out of the way of Katt's blaster fire. Jensen pulled out his own pistol, as did the commander. Katt and Slippy dropped from the grate, Katt was trained on Jensen and Slippy had his sights on the commander. The commander also had his gun pointed at Katt, as Jensen had his pistol pointed at Slippy. They were stuck in a Mexican stand off.

Jensen reached for the red button on his desk but Katt deterred him. "You go for that button and you lose your head."

Jensen took his hands away from the button and chuckled a little. "Well you aren't exactly the best assassins now are you?"

"Good enough to get the job done; if I'm the first to shoot, you die, that guy shoots me and then my friend here kills him. The way I see it, that means we're going up positive one."

"Well if that's the way it happened then I suppose you'd be right, but…" Jensen switched the knob on his blaster. "What happens if I do this?" Jensen switched his aim quickly and hit Katt in the torso with his first round. Slippy panicked and shot the commander in the head. The commander dropped to the floor, dead. Jensen switched his aim to Slippy before he could react and shot him as well.

Jensen laughed. "Thanks for the plan; it just required a little tweaking. Why would I sacrifice myself?"

* * *

Blaze finally made it down to the hanger where he had seen Fox last. The whole hanger was filled with motion, there were people running this way and that, most people were running to their fighters. Blaze could see Fox and Falco boarding their Arwings, he ran down the hanger to try to get to them but they shot out of the hanger before he could get there. Blaze was lost for what to do. _"Maybe I should just go back to the lab… No, I can't do that. What if we're defeated here and now? There's got to be something I can do!"_

Blaze noticed a fighter that no one was around. On an impulse Blaze darted for the fighter. He stood next to the fighter and still no one came. _"Alright then, here goes nothing."_ Blaze jumped into the cockpit and closed the hatch behind him. He went through a mental checklist of everything Falco taught him. _"Alright, check life support, g-diffuser, communications output… Okay they're all green so… now I hit this button and then the throttle." _ Blaze paused, he was still unsure of himself. He took the necklace out of his pocket and put it around his neck. Blaze took a deep breath and then pushed the throttle forward. The highly responsive fighter pushed through the force-field exit of the hanger.

When Blaze pulled out of the hanger he was awe-struck by the massive expanse of orange sand. Dunes were spread as far as he could see and all across the landscape were odd rock formations. Blaze pulled himself away from the sight when he remembered what he was doing. He pulled back on the flight sticks and the fighter brought its front end up towards the sky. In the sky above there was a huge battle going on, he could see one massive vessel surrounded by a bunch of individual fighters. Blaze's fighter came closer and closer to the battle. Suddenly a bit of stray laser fire came directly at Blaze's fighter. Blaze moved one flight stick forward as he moved the other back to move to the left, out of the way of the laser fire.

Just as Blaze was completely into the fray a fighter pulled in behind him. _"Oh no, this isn't good!"_ Blaze swerved left and right but it did nothing to shake the fighter. Falco's face appeared in the corner of the cockpit. "Hey you got a bogey—wait Blaze? What the hell are you doing up here? This is way too dangerous!"

Blaze continued to swerve. "Yeah I know, and it will be a lot more dangerous if you don't help me!" The following craft shot a volley of laser fire that just barely missed of Blaze's right side.

"Alright, Alright! Do a loop, pull back on both the flight sticks and don't stop until you're behind that guy!" Falco yelled across the communicator.

Blaze did as he was told; he jerked the flight sticks back hard. The fighter pulled up again but this time kept going until it was upside down. Blaze felt sick from the maneuver, the gravity in the cockpit stayed the same but seeing the world turn outside his cockpit was sickening. He completed the maneuver in what seemed a lifetime, but in actuality was less than a second. He pushed forward on the flight sticks when he saw the backend of the fighter that was following him. The enemy fighter pulled up thinking that Blaze had just shot upwards. Blaze followed in behind him and then hit the fire button on the right flight stick. He scored a direct shot to the engines of his opponent. The enemy fighter plummeted toward Titania.

"Yes! Nice job!" Falco exclaimed. "Well since you're up here we might as well use your help. Follow me; once we get to Fox we can try to take down that carrier. Don't stay too close behind me; I may need to make sudden stops."

Blaze found Falco's Arwing on his radar and came in behind him. Falco saw he was near and pulled away, heading towards Fox's Arwing. Falco sighed impatiently. "Oh look, Fox already worked his way all the way over there, this will be fun. Maybe we should hit the boost—oh crap, there's three of 'em coming for us. You fly left I'll fly right, they'll split up to follow us, when you see they're behind you, make a u-turn back the way I went. We can shoot them off each others backs."

Blaze turned his fighter to the left and shot off that way. Just as Falco had predicted they split up to follow each of them. Blaze looked back and saw two of them closing in on him fast. _"I really hope I remember how to do a u-turn." _Blaze pulled up on his flight sticks and when he was upside down he pushed one flight stick forward and pulled the other back to turn so that Titania was below him again. Blaze punched the throttle and sped out towards where he could see Falco speeding towards him. Right before they got in range Falco yelled to him. "Right after you shoot, do a barrel roll; I don't want to hit you on accident."

Blaze could see the enemy that was following Falco and he took the shot. Falco also began firing. Blaze stomped twice on the lean pedal and the fighter began to spin rapidly. Blaze closed his eyes until the roll was over. When he opened his eyes he could see Falco's fighter in front of him. "Pretty good Blaze, you got the one on my tail. You scared me a sec with how late you rolled, but hey it worked, so whatever."

Blaze's heart was pounding. He felt a mixture of fear and exhilaration. From Falco's cockpit he could also sense Falco's excitement. They again started to fly to where Fox was. They could see Fox's Arwing following an enemy fighter. They enemy fighter dropped and Fox's ship flew up to Falco and Blaze. "Hey Falco, you ready to go for the prize?"

Falco smirked. "When am I not? But how bout you check out who I found wandering the battlefield?"

Blaze decided it was time for him to speak. "Hey Fox."

Fox gaped. "Wait, how—why? You know what? Never mind I'm not even going to ask, you obviously wanted to be out here so this is the way it had to turn out. I would really have preferred you stayed safe in the base. This isn't a big wave of them but it's still plenty dangerous."

"I don't care! Really, I don't care how dangerous this is! I came here to save my family and friends, and if there's something dangerous I need to do on the way then so be it. Besides you guys are my friends too, I don't want to just sit out of the way and hope that nothing bad happens; I want to be part of it. You are going to help me save my family so the least I can do is try to help you now!" Blaze was slightly embarrassed at his outburst but he meant what he said.

Fox was speechless for a moment. "Alright then, you're right; and I'm sorry for acting like you're a child. If you're ready, let's all go take out that carrier."

Blaze and Falco both nodded. Falco laughed. "Let's go show these bastards that the old guard can still knock them out!"

Fox smiled. "I never thought I'd hear you rooting for the old guys. I always imagined you'd be eighty and still hanging with the young guns."

Falco frowned. "Yeah well there was a conflict of interests; I'm not a big fan of dictators. Now come on let's boost our way to that carrier. Let's knock the wind out of them and win this fight right now!"

All three fighters sped their way towards the carrier. Fox called out to Blaze. "Don't go towards the front, that's where its main guns are. Let's try to take out its engines."

The three ships swung around the side of the massive carrier to face its giant engines. They fired a large volley of laser fire at the engines but the beams never even reached the engines, they hit an invisible wall and bounced off in odd directions. Fox smacked his armrest. "They've got a force field; we're going to need to find some type of weak point."

Blaze pulled up and started to fly above the carrier. Fox yelled to him. "Hey where are you going?!"

Blaze spoke calmly. "Don't worry just trust me, I know exactly how to find their weak point." Blaze flew directly above the bridge of the ship and hovered there. He could hear the thoughts of a few of the crew. He focused in on one of them and probed their mind deeply. Blaze called to Fox and Falco over the communications system. "The only place on the ship not protected by the shield is the hanger! We need to take it out from the inside!"

Fox and Falco pulled up to where Blaze was. Fox turned his fighter around to face the carrier. "Alright follow me, this isn't the first time I've boarded one of these." The three ships pulled down towards the small opening in the carrier. Fox warned them. "Try not to get too close to the ship until we're real close to the hanger, otherwise you may get bumped by the force field."

Fox grit his teeth. "Alright get ready to pull in, don't expect a warm welcome."

* * *

A/N: Awesome chapter to write! I actually intended for more to happen but my word count kept rising so I saved a bit for later. Wow I cant believe how much stuff has yet to be resolved… like everything :P This is probably my favorite chapter so far. Hope the next one will be as much fun.

-F.A.E


	9. Chapter 9

Lights outcast shadows chapter 9

Katt was yet again awoken with a horrible headache. The last thing she could remember was the standoff with Jensen. Katt tried to bring her hand to her head but her wrist was tugged back. She opened her eyes and looked at her wrist, it was being held back by a chain attached to the wall. Her feet were also chained up. Katt looked around; she was surrounded by metal bars and chained to the wall. Wherever she was it was too dark to see past the bars. She tugged on the chains but they were much too strong. "Hello! Is anybody here?" She yelled.

From her right came a shushed voice. "Hey shut up! Do you want the guards to come down here?"

Katt moved as close to her right as the chains allowed. "Where am I?"

The voice came back slightly annoyed. "Well you obviously don't catch on too quick. We're in the Cornerian prisons, I don't know how you got here but you must've done something pretty bad. Who are you?"

"Katt, and yeah I'm pretty sure I know why I'm in here." Katt's voice was very depressed.

The man that she was talking to seemed to get excited over this. "Katt! Oh my god, that's great. I hope you get it bad, you're the reason I'm down here!"

Katt was very confused. "What the hell are you talking about? I didn't put anyone in here."

The man chuckled. "Oh you don't think so, but if you never tried to break into the Cornerian capital building I never would have got sent down here. I'll explain. I was one of the ones who chased you out of the building, since I failed to catch you I got sent down here. I've already been through three sessions and it's the worst thing that's ever happened to me. I hope you're treated even worse!"

Katt tried to continue speaking with the man but he didn't seem interested in talking anymore, he just continued laughing and speaking to himself. _"Well that's not good; if that guy was telling the truth then I'm in real trouble. Oh no what happened to Slippy?"_

Katt was about to try calling for Slippy but before she could she heard a metallic clang. The bars in front of her swung open and two burly retrievers came in. The one on her right began to speak. "We're bringing you to the chamber for your session; if you try to break free we will shoot you. So don't try anything funny." The two guards began to unshackle her from the wall. When one of the guards began to unhinge her broken leg Katt let out an audible whimper. "Oh so you're leg hurts huh? That's something I'll have to tell him; that could make for an interesting session right Monro?"

The other guard smirked. "Oh yeah I remember that time someone came in with a broken leg. That guy screamed so loud the whole jail could hear him."

The two guards finished unchaining Katt and pulled her sharply to her feet. They walked her out of her cell and Katt got a chance to see the man she was talking to. The man wasn't lying it wasn't definitely one of the guys following her. The guard on her right pulled her along faster. "Come on, hurry up."

They eventually came to a rusty metal door at the end of a long, otherwise empty hallway. The guard to her left opened the door and then the two guards pushed her through the door. In the room were only two things an old, rusted, metal chair and Jensen Ferrier. Jensen smiled when she walked in. "Take a seat."

Katt realized her position and did as she was told. When she sat down the guards came up to her and began to chain her to the chair. Katt started to resist them but the guard on her left whispered into her ear. "It'd be better for you if you didn't."

Katt let them continue. When they were done Jensen spoke to her. "You should be dead. I hope you know that. In a way you owe me your life. First, when I shot you, instead of switching to stun, I could have killed you. Second since you attempted to kill me I could have you put to death right now. But of course I couldn't do that, you know something that I need to know. Tell me where the rest of the rebel scum fled to!"

Katt remained very calm. "I don't know. Although I wouldn't tell you even if I did."

Jensen backhanded Katt hard across the face. Her nose started to bleed. "I can make you wish that I would kill you!"

Katt's face was already beginning to bruise. "Well since I'm obviously not going to talk, can you hurry up with this?"

A guard yelled from behind. "Hey Boss, her left leg is hurting her! How bout you give it a whack?"

Jensen smiled. "Are you sure you don't want to speak, you insolent bitch?"

Katt remained adamant. "Like I said before, I have nothing to say to you. Except that I would love for you to say that to me on an even playing field."

Jensen laughed heartily as he picked up a thick metal bar that Katt had not seen lying there. "Well although I'm disappointed that you won't talk; I'm going to love making you scream."

* * *

Fox put his blaster over his makeshift cover and fired randomly at the enemy pilots. A few more shots came whizzing over his head. Blaze, Falco, and Fox were all pinned down behind a downed ship in the enemy hanger. Fox lowered himself to the ground and sighed. "Well this is a great position were in. Why the heck did they have so many guys in here anyway?"

Falco smiled. "I don't know but I think I have an idea on how to get us out of this. Fox, cover me; I'm going to run back to my ship and get a thermal detonator. That should clear this place out a bit."

Fox nodded. "Go for it, on three then. One, two, three!" Falco darted out of cover and headed for his arwing. Fox popped up and shot wildly at as many as he could. A few keeled over from shots to the stomach and the rest ran to find cover. Fox dropped back behind cover as shots darted above his head. The enemy pilots were about to fire another volley when a blinking red cartridge fell in behind their cover. The pilots stared at it, a few were curious as to what it was. Those who knew were paralyzed by fear.

The explosion shot a concussive blast out in all directions, launching pilots from the blast. Fox and Blaze could feel the blast even from cover. Falco called out to them. "Coast's clear, let's get going."

Fox and Blaze walked out from behind the cover and to the exit of the hanger. Blaze paused over one of the pilots and picked up his pistol. "So, where are we going now?"

Fox stopped and thought. "Well I'm pretty sure our best bet would be to just destroy the internal reactor, the blast will be powerful enough to take out the entire ship. Only problem is after we hit the reactor it will explode in about two minutes, that just barely gives us enough time to run back to the hanger and fly to safety."

Blaze smiled. "Well you sure do know a lot about this ship, don't you?"

Fox nodded. "I needed to know that kind of thing, I fought alongside these ships before. So do you guys agree with me? Or should we try to take out the bridge?"

Falco scowled. "Don't even mention that, I already agreed with you, it was a bad idea. How was I supposed to know about all the guards they kept up there with them? Let's just get on with this alright?"

Fox smiled to himself in spite of Falco's indignant explanation. "Alright then let's get to the reactor. It should be near the engines; it's a good thing that the hanger was built so close to the back. I'll go first; Falco, you take the back."

Fox poked his head through the doors opening and checked the hallway. "All clear." Fox whispered. Fox came all the way through the door and was followed by Blaze and Falco as he darted down the right side of the hallway.

As Fox came to the first turn in the hallway he made a wide circle around the corner with his pistol drawn. A guard was walking away from Fox. Fox dropped to a knee and aimed at the back of the guard. The guard slumped to the ground as the blaster fire struck him dead center in the back. Fox motioned for Blaze and Falco to follow him. They continued through the hallway, past the bleeding guard until they saw a door on their right. Fox opened the door slightly and brought his gun through the opening. After looking inside he quickly closed the door. "There are still a few stragglers in their barracks, let's push this body in front of the door; we don't want them to interfere with us on the way out."

They continued down the hallway until they reached another door. "Alright, this is it." Fox said. "It should only take a few shots into the core and then it'll start to destabilize."

Fox opened the door and the three of them walked in. The whole room was made up of a circular floor surrounding what looked most like a swirling blue lightning storm. There was glass surrounding the core. Fox nodded to Falco and Blaze and they nodded back. Fox pistol whipped the glass and it broke a good sized hole. Fox placed his gun through the opening and fired three shots into its center. The vortex turned red and started to turn more rapidly. A loud whooshing noise filled the room and Fox had to shout over it. "Run!"

The three of them burst through the doors back out into the hallway. They again passed the door that they blocked with the guards body. As they were running they heard someone shout behind them. "Hey, stop!"

Falco turned around and fired off shots from his two blasters as he was running backwards. The guard jumped back behind the door. Falco turned around just as the turn in the hall came up. Fox pointed forward. "The hanger's right up here, let's hurry!"

They ran into the hanger and jumped in their separate fighters. Fox started the fighter as quickly as he could. As soon as he got the communicator working he used it to talk to Blaze in his fighter. "Hey, you alright with starting that thing up?"

Blaze was just checking things over a second time. "Yeah I'm fine I just read your mind as you were going through everything."

"Alright let's keep rank; I'll go first then you then Falco." Fox said. Fox didn't wait for a response, he brought his arwing up and shot out of the hanger.

Blaze was just pulling up as the hanger doors began to close. "Oh no, Falco what do I do?"

Falco yelled over the comm. "Gun it!"

Blaze's fighter shot through the hanger and back into space. Falco pulled up. The hanger doors were picking up speed. Falco hit the accelerator hard and pulled hard on his left flight stick. The arwing turned sideways and just barely made it through the doors. Behind him Falco could hear the explosion of the huge ship. He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead.

Fox called to him across the communicator. "Nice flying, not that I expected less, although you cut that one a bit close don't you?"

"A bit closer than I wanted but it got the job done. It seems like the battles over out here, let's get inside." Falco said, working to slow his heartbeat.

* * *

Fox, Falco and Blaze walked out of the hanger towards Bill's office. Falco smiled at Blaze. "I hope you can stay with us for awhile, you flew pretty well for your first real battle. You remind me of myself way back when I was in the academy."

Fox nodded. "Yeah, you did well. I was thinking you needed more practice before something like that but you seemed to handle yourself pretty well."

Blaze smiled an almost embarrassed smile. "Thanks guys but really it wasn't that great, I had you guys telling me what to do the whole time. Anyway I had better get back down to the lab; I think I can get the machine done by tomorrow if I pull an all-nighter, so I should go work on that. I'll see you later." Blaze ran down the hallway that leads to the labs.

Fox and Falco continued walking towards Bill's office. "Blaze is really devoted to helping us isn't he?" Fox asked.

Falco nodded. "Well yeah, but wouldn't you be too if it was your only chance to save your family and friends."

"Yeah I guess so." Fox paused and an awkward silence proceeded. "How do you think things are going on Corneria right now?"

Falco sighed. "I can't imagine they're going well. I've been real worried about Katt recently. I know she must be working to take down this new government, that's just the way she is. She's probably in huge trouble down there, I wish there was something we could do about it but it doesn't seem like there's anything we can do until Blaze finishes that machine."

"I know how you feel. I know that Krystal is in trouble but there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. I feel so useless. Hopefully Bill will have something for us to do to get our minds off it." Fox finished his statement just as they were walking into Bill's office.

Standing in front of Bill was team Starwolf. Fox pulled out his pistol and pressed it against the back of Wolf's head.

Bill practically jumped over his desk to push Fox's gun down. "No Fox they're here to help us."

Wolf turned around with a grin on his face. "Now is that anyway to say hello to a new group of helpers? How about you save that ferocity for the battlefield, Pup."

Fox put his gun away. "So you're going to help us take out Ferrier?"

Wolf nodded. "For a price that is, but I've already worked that out with Grey here. It seems I'm going to be working with you; I'm sure it'll be a lot better than our rude welcome."

Fox frowned. "Just because you're helping us doesn't mean we have to be nice. I do appreciate the help though."

Wolf smiled. "You better; we have the codes to Corneria's entire defensive mainframe. I've got to say, you had no chance without these. I've been briefed on your situation and from what I've heard Bill has something pretty important to tell you. Just wait for me to leave the room first, I don't want to see man tears or anything." With that team Starwolf left the room.

"So what the heck was he talking about Bill?" Fox asked.

Bill livened up immediately. "Oh that's right, the medical staff has alerted me that Krystal is awake! As a matter of fact they had to sit her back down because she just got up and started to look for you."

Fox gaped for a moment and before saying a single thing he burst through the doors of Bill's office on his way to the medical wing.

* * *

A/N: Sorry this one took so long, a bunch of stuff came up. I just got an xbox 360 with halo 3, I broke my middle finger, and I have drivers ed. Also I've been having trouble sitting myself down and writing. Hopefully next chapter will be faster. Till then

-F.A.E


	10. Chapter 10

Lights outcast shadows chapter 10

Krystal sat up and was quickly laid back down by the stern nurse by her side. "Sorry Miss but I can't let you get up. Doctor's orders are that after waking up from that coma you shouldn't stress your body. That means you're not getting out of bed for some time now."

Krystal was still slightly drowsy from her long sleep but gathered her wit for a quick retort. "Really, because I'm pretty sure it's my call whether I get up or not. I haven't done anything in who know how long!"

While Krystal's plea had a visual effect on the nurse she remained adamant. "I'm sorry Miss but my orders are to make sure you stay resting. I understand your predicament but I'm really not allowed to let you leave."

Krystal heard a very soft knock on the door. "Come in." the nurse said, curious of whom it could be; as far as she knew her shift wasn't over for some time to come.

Fox walked in and when he saw Krystal awake he ran to her. Krystal jumped out of bed at the sight of Fox and ran to him before the nurse could stop her. They met in an embrace. Fox shuddered in happiness as her arms came around him, he couldn't believe how happy he felt; it was like all his childhood birthdays combined plus more. He could feel his eyes watering. As they moved away Fox quickly brushed his eyes against his sleeve. "I'm so happy you're all right. I was so scared when Blaze told me what happened to you." Fox paused for a second and then looked to the nurse. "Could you excuse us please?"

The nurse looked as if she would have a tantrum but then walked out of the room mumbling to herself about young people and respect. Fox looked slightly taken aback considering he was as polite as he could possibly be. When she finally slammed the door walking out Krystal giggled. "Well that did the trick; I've been trying to get rid of her forever." Krystal looped her arms over Fox's shoulders and rested herself on his chest. "I missed you. It seemed so long since I last saw you; you wouldn't believe how slowly time passes when you have little to no contact with the outside world. I had no idea how long I'd been out, I needed to ask that nurse if the war had already passed or not."

Fox chuckled and sat down on the bed Krystal was sleeping on, bringing Krystal down to sit on his lap still holding her hands behind his head. "Far from it, we just won our first battle. We even have a plan to take out Ferrier."

Krystal smiled. "Well that's good, but I didn't care so much about that as that you were alive. Now how bout we talk politics later?" Krystal pushed Fox's chest down onto the bed and brought her face to his. "So tell me again, how much did you miss me?"

Fox smiled. "More than you could know, but one thing first… Did you know what was going on in your head before you battled Andross in your mind, because I really would have liked to have known about something so serious."

Krystal drew herself away from him. "Well… I thought I could handle it; I didn't want you to worry. I just thought it was my problem to take care of; I never expected it to get out of control like this."

Fox sighed. He knew that Krystal didn't want to worry him but he also knew that she knew how big a danger Andross was. "Alright, but if anything like that is ever going on in the future try to tell me about it okay?"

Krystal laid her head on Fox's chest. "Ok and I'm sorry about not telling you what was happening. I'll know better next time, even if I think it's something I can handle, a little help won't hurt."

Fox kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes. With all that was going on he found sanctuary with Krystal; one that, no matter how much he wanted, could not last forever. Fox knew that in what would seem like seconds he would be fighting again, but for now his heart and mind were with love.

* * *

Katt lay on the floor of her cell; she was in so much pain for so long that she was almost numb to it now. She didn't have the heart to look at her legs; they felt as though they were smashed to bits. She was pretty sure that her tear glands had run out, she felt as though she were crying but all she could feel was the pain in her legs and stomach. She looked around the dark cell for anything to give her a life line to the real world. There was nothing, she could see nothing. There was nothing but pain. Her mind was a weakened shield from insanity; with nothing to keep her, her shield was quickly fading. There was no concept of time down there. For all anyone knew a second could last an hour, it was a hopeless pit of confusion, fear, and pain. Katt was one of the lucky ones if you could think of it that way, her broken legs did not allow for suicide…

* * *

Blaze placed his device down on the table in front of him. He looked it over in satisfaction. _"Finally done."_ It resembled a large black ball with gaps running across it horizontally emanating an odd red glow.

Falco pushed the door open hastily and entered the room. He seemed slightly peeved. "Hey Blaze didn't you hear that Krystal was awake? She wanted to see you."

Blaze didn't take his eyes off his device. "Oh yeah I knew but I just really needed to get this done, we are kind of fighting for the future of everyone you know."

Falco looked at the device and scowled. "Humph! Looks pretty low tech to me. You're plan was to throw a ball at the wormhole and hope we get back on a fluke?"

Blaze frowned. "I couldn't even begin to explain to you all the technology that is in this device, besides I'm not sure you're taking this as seriously as you should be. Aren't you worried about Katt?"

Falco looked ready to explode. "Why don't you tell me psycho boy?"

Blaze sighed. "Alright calm down, I realize that was a low blow but you shouldn't have insulted my portal bomb like that. I've spent so many hours on this thing."

Falco fumed off speaking angrily over his shoulder. "Whatever get that thing down to Bill, and god damn it go see Krystal!"

Blaze stared at the door Falco just burst through. He didn't understand how someone so much older than him could be so much touchier.

* * *

Jensen Ferrier emerged from the door to the lower levels of the government building, rubbing his hands against his pants. A soldier ran up to him and saluted quickly. "Sir, our forces were defeated on Titania."

Jensen held a hand up to silence the soldier. "Yes, I know that, but you have more to tell me. You need to tell me about their numbers, their skill, and their resources. What have we learned?"

The soldier nodded. "Well sir I think it would be best for you to hear it from The Commander, but he told me one really important piece of information to give to you. Star Wolf was docked at the rebel base, The Commander suspects double-dealing. The Commander is already in your office to fill you in on the details."

"Excellent, get back to your post soldier." Jensen watched as the young soldier rushed back to his post. Something held Ferrier rooted to the spot, he didn't really want to see "The Commander" in person, even he was slightly afraid of him, and even he didn't know his true name. Against a portion of himself Ferrier pushed himself up the stairs to his office for his imminent meeting. He remembered The Commander as he had last seen him, almost a year before his overthrow of the government. In the same lower corridors he was leaving is where he met the man. Much older than he and probably much wiser too, Jensen thought with grudging respect. He was a completely gray furred fox with a firm set jaw and muscular features, unusual for one of his years. The only thing that really frightened Ferrier about him was the look in his eyes. They were darker than the deepest reaches of space and seemed to go on forever, Jensen could remember looking into those cold dark eyes and feeling as though his soul would be lifted out of his body. Ferrier shivered, it was not a memory he enjoyed recalling. Jensen almost felt lucky when The Commander shared his views on economy and politics and agreed when he said they needed a new leader. The Commander explained to Jensen the plan that he had hatched so long ago to overthrow the government. This always came to one undeniable problem for him though, while The Commander had wit, intelligence, and political knowledge he had not been gifted with speech-craft, he doubted his own ability to lead the people after the act he was ready to commit, and that's where Ferrier came in. Ferrier knew it was just a matter of time until The Commander tried to take him out too and so he devised his own plan to take care of The Commander, he wanted to move himself from what felt like figure heading the government to being in complete and total control. Jensen walked into his office with a smile on his face and spoke to the old gray fox that now sat in his chair. "So I heard you have some good news for me my friend." …Anyone who has had power has known that silence is a plot against you and friendship is the worst thing anyone could ever offer you.

* * *

Krystal sat on the hospital bed with her legs crossed underneath her staring intently at the door in front of her. Then the door swung open, just as she knew it would. Blaze came in and looked over to her bed, he managed a weak smile. "Hey it's good to see you're alright again."

Krystal lifted a corner of her mouth, her absentminded attempt at a smile. "Thanks, but are you alright?"

Blaze cocked his head slightly in confusion. "Well yeah, I guess I'm alright I'm still a bit tired but that's about it. Why do you ask?"

Krystal fully grinned this time and blew off the question altogether. "Oh no reason at all really, well Fox did tell me you were in a battle but he already told me you were okay, I guess I'm just worrying too much."

Blaze still didn't really understand what Krystal was so flustered about. "Hey where's Fox?" He mostly just asked this to get the conversation somewhere other than where it was.

"He's going to go get me something to drink since I'm technically not allowed outside this bed for awhile still. Do you mind filling me in on some of the things I missed while I was out? Oh, actually, even better, describe the fight to me!"

Blaze smiled embarrassedly. "Alright but I think you'd get more information out of anyone but me, I hardly knew what was going on half the time."

* * *

Bill poured over all his notes and strategies he had written out over the past few days, his mind turning with the thoughts of the coming battle, or if they do it right, their escape. He placed a hand on the sphere that Blaze had given him and sighed. He was placing everyone's lives in the hands of a kid that he hardly even knew. No, Bill thought. _"I'm putting my trust in Fox and Krystal, they believe him and so should I." _But Bill knew that what he should do and what he would do were all too often different.

Falco knocked softly on Bill's door and came in as he was beckoned. The Avian sat down in the chair in front of Bill and stared down at the desk with his eyes glazed over. Bill looked up at him questioningly and when it seemed he had lost all track of where he was Bill cleared his throat meaningfully. Falco snapped his gaze up to Bill and remembered why he had come into his office. "Bill I have a favor to ask of you."

Bill was surprised to see Falco so somber and thoughtful. All he could do to reply was nod his head.

"We need to start Blaze's plan as early as possible, I know we need to hurry; there is no time to waste. I can tell you're skeptical about the kid's plan and I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't, but it really is our only chance. What we saw today was so few of Corneria's military I can't help but wonder why they even sent them, they can crush us at any time they chose, we need to get this done."

Bill seemed to grow older as Falco spoke. "I know, I was thinking the same thing but what if it fails? All that death will be at my hands!"

Falco frowned. "And if you don't even try it then we're all dead anyway, don't be afraid to fail, it wont get you anywhere."

Bill stood with a sigh and looked out the window of his office to the swirling orange sands of Titania. "Let everyone know we'll be heading out tomorrow eleven o'clock sharp. I'm trusting your decision here."

Falco smiled slightly. "No you're trusting your own decision that you were too afraid to make by yourself."

* * *

A/N: Very sorry for the lack of new chapters for 3 and a half months, I am a lazy sack of crap with an X-Box 360 so yeah. __ Lots of skipping around in this chapter, had a lot of stuff I needed to wrap up in this chapter as well as the introduction of the commander and a major theme that I've been thinking a lot about lately. Hope you enjoyed, also I hope I won't be so long next time. : P


	11. Chapter 11

Lights Outcast Shadows Chapter 11

Fox stood staring at his arwing in deep thought; he had readied his mind completely for the time when he would have to touch down on hostile Corneria, and yet here he was packing his arwing full of stuff he would need in the coming assault, confused as to whether to take more rifle ammo or to bring another weapon with him. The argument was still being played out in his head when Falco came down onto the otherwise empty docking bay. Falco saw the confused look on Fox's face and offered his advice. "Take the ammo; we don't know how long we'll be down there."

Fox nodded and put the extra magazines into the cargo space of his arwing. "I'm really hoping we don't need to use the heavier weapons though considering we plan on this being a stealth mission more than anything else."

"Yeah but you know it never works out that smooth, there are gonna be kinks in the plan and that gun might be necessary. I'm packing for stealth but not exclusively, I still got some heavy guns in here." Falco said patting the side of his arwing. "I agree with you though, I really wish it would go smooth."

Fox smiled a crooked smile. "Don't wanna bust any bad guy face today?"

Falco frowned. "No, not when there's so much at stake."

Fox was surprised by Falco's solemn demeanor and made it a point to keep busy to avoid an awkward conversation. Soon Fox and Falco were joined in preparation by Krystal, Blaze, and Starwolf. Everyone was packing up in stoic silence except for Wolf who was chatting animatedly to Panther and Leon about how much they were going to make once they pulled this job off. Soon ordinary troops were filing into the docking bay and prepping up their fighters as well. Fox, Falco, Krystal, and Blaze were checking their communications lines and their g-diffusers When Bill walked up to the side of Blaze's arwing and rapped a knuckle on the cockpit. Blaze lifted the canopy and looked intently at Bill. Bill stared back deep into his eyes. Blaze nodded. "I have complete faith in that device, and I want this just as much as everyone else."

Bill nodded and walked away from Blaze's arwing and towards the biggest ship in the fleet, where he would be commanding the "Maneuver". _"I really hope you do." _

* * *

Jensen lounged back in his chair with his feet on the desk and his hands behind his head. The picture of peace on the outside, while his mind was in utter chaos. Thoughts of the rebels and the commander haunted his mind; he had not slept in days. He had almost fallen asleep in his chair when the commander walked into his office. He snapped upright in his chair immediately alert. "What is it?"

The commander smiled at him and Jensen could feel his eyes burn into him. "You will be happy to hear that the entirety of the Titanian rebel base is coming to fight Corneria, they number just as many as we counted there, give or take a dozen."

Jensen smiled. "They don't know they're outnumbered? What fools! We can crush them now! Bring whatever force we need to meet them, destroy their forces and this could be the last battle we need to fight!"

The commander nodded and left the room. Jensen grinned even larger. _"And hopefully you will die along with those rebels!"_

* * *

Bill stood on the bridge of his ship and watched as he slowly approached Corneria. He could see a sea of black dots coming towards him through space. "Hold here for a moment, let them come to us."

The enemy ships approached and when they came close enough for communications The Commander appeared on the screen in front of Bill. The Commander smiled conceitedly. "Are you ready for your surrender?"

Bill wiped his brow and shook his head slightly; the pilots saw his signal and turned the ship around. The Commander watched as the entire rebel fleet turned their back to him. _"What could they be thinking, coming out to meet us and then fleeing? No doubt they want us to follow them. But I don't think they expected that our ships are outfitted with such superior jets. We will catch them and make them pay for testing my patience as they have."_

Bill looked back even though he knew he couldn't see the incoming fighters. "Are they following us?"

One of the pilots responded. "They're following us and gaining fast! They're covering distance much faster than anticipated!"

"Evasive maneuvers get this ship where it needs to be!" Bill barked. _"Well," _Bill thought._ "I guess they are doing what we want them to, but no plan is perfect."_

The Commander barked out his commands quickly. "Tell the whole fleet to follow, and overtake them if possible." His pilot started to reach for the flight stick. "No, not us, we will stay back here to overlook the battle." Although this was not his actual reasoning, he knew they may be led into a trap. Self-preservation is the best motivator.

* * *

Four arwings flew toward the white ball that was Corneria, followed fast by three wolfens. Fox pushed the flight sticks hard as thoughts of what awaited him flooded his mind. Fighting against Corneria, on Corneria. _"No," _Fox thought._ "I cant think like that, this person is evil and that's all there is to it. He killed Pepper, brought Corneria into turmoil. No I'm fighting the enemy of Corneria just as I always have been. He deserves what I'm bringing him."_

Fox was broken from his vengeful thoughts by Krystal's voice. "Fox, where are we going to land?"

It was a simple question, and like so many other simple questions it had been completely overlooked until now. Fox racked his brain for a quick second and came up with what seemed like a good idea. "I know a good spot, it's open enough for us to land and close to the capital building. Plus no one ever goes there anymore that I know of."

Falco responded immediately. "I know exactly where you're thinking and it's the perfect place. The last time I was there it was even more overgrown then when we left it."

Fox nodded to no one. "Alright then everyone follow Falco and I, we'll lead you to the LZ."

* * *

The grove of trees left no reason to believe civilization had ever so much as seen it besides the small makeshift tree house on one side. The tree house was extremely overgrown with vines seemingly trying to rip the feeble structure apart. It was as serene as imaginable, with no noise penetrating its thick wooden walls. Slowly the long grass began to sway, and a humming noise reached the grove. The grass began to sway violently now as an arwing came to rest on its surface, followed by three more of both arwings and wolfens. Fox jumped out of the cockpit and landed softly on the grass of his old grove. He always thought of it as his because he was one of the few to know of it, the others being his friends Falco and Slippy. But seeing as it was nearest his house no one questioned the fact that it was his. Fox took in the scenery a moment looking around at the changes that had taken place in his grove, it was still as beautiful as ever and the only change he could see was in his old tree house.

Krystal walked next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's beautiful Fox."

Fox put a hand over hers and grinned. "I'm glad you think so, maybe we can come back when this is all over, right now we have to get back to our mission."

Falco was already clambering around inside his arwing, grabbing weapons and equipment. "A truer statement has never been spoken, let's hurry up and hit that capital building."

"Well hold on, we need to make a plan. There are probably still guards; we can't just throw caution to the wind." Fox watched as Wolf, Panther, and Leon walked away from him as he spoke. "Where do you guys think you're going?"

Wolf glared at Fox venomously. "We don't need to listen to you, pup. You go about this however you want, we wont bother you but we're doing it our way." Wolf continued, followed by his team mates; as he was leaving the grove he called back over his shoulder. "I hope you live through all this, it wouldn't be right if you were taken down the one time we ever helped you."

As team Starwolf disappeared into the dense forest Fox turned back to face his crew. "Well we're probably better off without them anyway, so does anyone have any ideas on how to get in there without being noticed?"

"Yeah I do," Falco stated flatly. "And so do you. Don't you remember the back way we always used to go?"

Fox's eyes lit up and he grinned broadly. "You mean when we used to watch my dad get briefed on missions?" Fox laughed at the distant memory. "Yeah that'll work perfectly. Let's get our gear and head out."

* * *

Bill stared at the spatial rip that he was supposed to fly through. The pilots of his flagship were running around and yelling to each other, using all of their flying prowess not to be overtaken by the enemy ships. A voice just barely caught Bill's ear. "Sir at this rate they will just fly right through the rip with us!"

Bill thought to himself. _"They need to be slowed down, and the only way I can think of doing that is… no that's too dangerous… but it's our only chance we'll have to do it."_ Bill called back to the pilot who yelled to him. "Tell all of the crafts to begin leaking their plasma out of their jets."

The pilot gawked at Bill in disbelief. "But sir, if we do that we'll lose all power to move. We'll be sitting ducks!"

Bill glared at the pilot. "Yes well that's what we'll be anyway if we don't slow them down any. Do the same for our ship, we need to knock them off course."

The Commander watched in horror as the ships closest to the rebel fleet began to explode. The highly volatile plasma connected with their ships and shot debris everywhere as the ships exploded. The ships behind the others had to fly in odd patterns to avoid debris and plasma. The pilot next to The Commander quietly asked him what his plan of action was. The Commander responded with a cackle. "Keep going as planned. They'll be out of plasma in a minute, and then we can destroy them."

Bill watched the little dots on the motion tracker back off of them as the spatial rip drew closer. "Fire the spatial stabilizer!"

The small ball-like object shot from the front of their vessel into the rip turning it an odd shade of blue. Bill yelled out. "Quickly into the hole!" The rebel fleet followed after the device into the spatial rip.

The Commander watched as the rebel fleet flew through the rip in space-time and called the orders to his pilots. "Send all vessels besides this one through that hole, send us back to Corneria."

The pilots obeyed their commands and as The Commanders vessel turned from the spatial rip he knew that none of the soldiers flying in would come out alive. "_All the better." _He thought. "_May as well kill two birds with one stone, I definitely have enough time now."_

* * *

Fox, Falco, and Krystal walked briskly through the serene forest, hurrying along much too fast to take in the scenery that would have normally ensnared them. They were rushed along by nothing more than thoughts and memories of their loved ones and the peace of the past. Soon their rapid deep breaths were accompanied by the sound of a bustling city and the city skyline came into view over the horizon. Just as they reached an end to the seemingly endless forest a weight seemed to fall on their arms and legs and their pace slowed. Finally they came to a complete halt at the edge of the forest. Fox tried to yell to his companions to ask what was going on but when he did so nothing came from his mouth. For a few moments they all stood there in complete motionlessness. Then a figure cloaked in black appeared out of the vegetation in front of them. The hood cast a shadow on his face so he was completely indiscernible. A gruff voice came from the inside of his hood. "I'm going to give the freedom to speak again as long as you don't abuse your privilege, most people don't get to understand what's going on before they die."

Fox could feel his mouth become free again. "Who the hell are you?"

A chuckle was let from beneath the hood. "Very appropriate wording, but I can not give you full details just yet. But I will tell you this; I am a servant of death. It seems you are much overdue for your appointment."

A huge weight sank in Fox's heart as all life seemed to be sucked out of him. "I'm sorry, but we're going to have to reschedule this appointment as I'm already late for an appointment with one Mr. Ferrier."

"Oh don't worry yourself he has already been taken care of by Starwolf; for once charge in without a plan was the right plan." The hooded figure chuckled and as he noticed Fox looking sadly towards Krystal spoke up again. "Now this is no time for sad goodbyes you've still got a chance to live. Fox looked away from Krystal with a glimmer of hope back in his eye. "Let me explain further." The cloaked figure said. "I was picked especially for this job by death himself. He wants a little bit of a show so you get to fight for your right to live. Kill me and you get to live."

For the first time the cloaked figure removed his hood and Fox was able to see his face. It was horribly disfigured and he could see what he recognized as bits of aparoid on his head and face. There was something oddly familiar about the face that he couldn't quite place. Then it dawned on him. "No way…"

* * *

A/N: Sorry sorry and all that you get the idea after how many times I've said it. Yeah got caught up in life as it seems to happen a lot but finished this chapter up eventually. No promises for the next one cus that'll just get me in trouble. Busy playin cod 4 and 5. either way I hope you enjoyed the chapter and the first of two climaxes is coming in the next chapter. And just gunna let you in on some good listening material to end this one. Crack the skye by mastodon, and see you on the other side by KoRn. Crack the Skye provided some of the motivation for this story so give it a listen when it comes out in march.


	12. Chapter 12

Lights Outcast Shadows chapter 12

"There's just no way that this can be real; I just don't understand, I can't!" Fox was suddenly released from his limbs paralysis and fell to his knees with tears welling in his eyes. Both Krystal and Blaze could sense what Fox was feeling. Falco also recognized the person in the cloak. Fox whimpered out a barely audible statement. "You're dead."

The man laughed and threw his cloak to the side revealing open wounds and sores on his body that were filled with bits of Aparoid. "See Fox, I am just like you, avoiding death. But as it is inevitable he sought me out, and he gave me a second chance just like you. Even after all this time apart I can see that you still have the greatest respect for me but you may stand now. We soon must face each others as equals in a battle to the death."

Fox stood slowly to face the decaying half aparoid that stood before him. He wiped a hand in front of his eyes to clear his vision. "I still have questions that need to be answered. What brought you to this dad?"

James McCloud or what was left of him smiled at his son's question. "I was hoping you'd ask that as it is such an interesting question to answer, let me start from the beginning. When you and everyone else thought that I had died, I was actually transported to another dimension. You see this was a part of Andross's genius; Instead of killing his enemies he sent us to a dimension that he completely controls. I was then used as an experiment for future weapons, you knew them as Aparoids. So I guess you could think of it in the way that every aparoid you killed was previously a friend. Anyway I digress, andross saw the value in keeping me and used a potential fight between you and I as a deal point with death himself. I infiltrated the government by posing as The Commander a feared symbol for that fool Jensen and overthrew the pitiful Cornerian government to get my shot at you, now no one and I mean no one can help you. So hear I am, your father hear to fight you in your final battle."

Fox snarled. "You are not my Father. That body was once my fathers but his spirit is long gone, you are just a shell. My father would never speak so highly of Andross, he's in complete control of you." Fox shuddered with a mixture of anger and sadness.

"A shell I may be but a shell that is superior to you in every way, go on take the first punch, I dare you."

Fox stared at his fathers shell for a moment and in the blink of an eye whipped out his blaster rifle and pointed it at his new nemesis. Before he was even able to pull the trigger the weapon was wrenched from his grasp by an invisible force and tossed to the side.

James walked over to Fox. "Now, now do you really think that it would be that easy? There's no cheating like that, next time I'll kill you right there. But for now…" A huge sweeping right hand took Fox by surprise and knocked him onto the dirt.

Fox spit blood onto the ground and as he saw James walking closer to him jumped back and into a fighting stance. James laughed. "Know that's more like it, fight like a man!"

Fox was enraged and fell right into his fathers trap. Fox threw a quick jab with his left followed by a quick body shot with right. James easily blocked the jab and caught Fox's right hand which he used to flip Fox over his shoulder. Fox was caught off guard but quickly righted himself again. James laughed. "There is no way you can beat me Fox, I'm enhanced much past anything you could ever hope to achieve."

Fox answered him by giving him a feint with his right and a jab with his left. James didn't even flinch at the feint and simply knocked Fox's jab away as if it were nothing more than an annoying fly.

James chuckled at the angered look on Fox's face. "Oh good is it my turn now?" James threw a powerful right which Fox blocked but the force of the blow made Fox stumble slightly. James then used a sideways kick aimed at the legs to completely throw Fox head over tail. When Fox landed James was on him in a second and he had his arms pinned with his legs. "Well this surely is disappointing Fox, it's as if I have already won. You can't seem to move can you?"

Fox squirmed a bit but realized it was useless, he couldn't move his arms at all. James mused to himself. "Hmm now that I think of it I don't know how I should kill you. Would you like to ask your friends how you should die?"

Fox squirmed a bit more and spoke through gritted teeth. "Nah, I'll pass." Then Fox brought his legs up as far as he could and wrapped them around James neck. Putting all the force he could into it Fox flung James off of himself. James slammed hard into the ground. Fox jumped back up in a fighting stance. James was slow to get up but when he did he didn't seem the least bit hurt, just more annoyed than before.

"You are nowhere near strong enough to defeat me; you may as well give up. The power I have been given is too much for you."

Fox spat on the ground and lifted his fist again in challenge. As soon as he did his father disappeared from view. He looked around for a moment when he heard a voice inside his head. _"Behind you!"_ Fox whipped around into a roundhouse kick which connected hard into James's side. The kick connected hard with a solid strip of aparoid metal driving it hard into the decaying flesh of his father's body. James crumpled, nursing his side with one arm. He yelled out in confusion and outrage. "How!"

Fox lifted his hands back into his fighting stance and looked down at his father. "There are a lot of things you don't know about me. You've been gone a long time, you don't know how far I've come."

Yet again James disappeared but this time when Fox swung to look behind him he was hit hard from the side. James spat on the ground in front of where Fox lay. "I know exactly how far you've come; I know everything about you, Andross knows everything about you!"

Fox brought a stiff arm up into James's jaw. "Andross is dead! His body has been destroyed, nothing ties him to this world!"

James wiped his jaw with his hand. "That's where you're wrong, partially anyway, his body may have died but his spirit is still living and I think you know that too."

James smiled broadly at Krystal, and Fox glared with intense hate at his Father's body. "He can't win that fight, he's too weak."

James laughed maniacally. "Andross can do anything! Can't you see that the evidence is standing before you!? You will die, everyone here will die and all that will be left are servants for the only master of time and space!"

Fox was enraged again and launched a barrage of punches and kicks aimed at the Frankenstein monster in front of him. James continued to duck and dodge easily and taunted while Fox attacked. "Is that the best you got? I thought I taught you better than that."

Fox stopped and yelled. "You never taught me anything! My father taught me how to fight!"

Again James disappeared from in front of him, then Fox heard a whisper in his ear. "Well then I guess he didn't teach you well enough, now did he?" Before Fox could turn to face his opponent he was caught in a deep headlock. Fox could feel his airway constricting, he brought his hands to his throat to try to rip the arm away from his throat. The pressure didn't slacken in the least. He could feel himself becoming light headed as no air could make it to his brain. A very light voice came from the back of his mind. It muttered something that he couldn't make out. He was starting to loosen his grip on the arm and he could tell he was losing the fight to keep his consciousness. The voice spoke again this time more strongly. "Back kick!"

Fox took the advice and kicked backward strongly, without thinking his foot went toward his opponents leg, connecting solidly with his knee. James knee bent backward at an awkward angle and he tumbled to the ground. Fox fell as well, gasping for breath to refill his lungs.

After a moment Fox stood up and noticed that James was still on the ground nursing his knee which appeared to be broken. Fox was still out of breath but took his advantage to stand above his enemy. "I think you may want to give in, you cant fight with a broken leg."

James smirked derisively at Fox. "You think you have won, watch and you'll see why it's not possible to defeat me!" James put his hands on his broken knee and after a moment of holding it brought it back up into it's regular position. The bone went back up with a disgusting crack and pop, making Fox grimace. James laughed and stood back up. "Now what do you think will happen if the same thing happens to you?"

Fox yet again put his hands up in front of his face. "It won't!"

James smiled again. "We'll see about that." James launched a myriad of kicks and punches against Fox. Fox was able to block a few but many landed solid blows. His arms and torso were bruised horribly from the onslaught and every time he blocked it hurt more. James threw a strong right hand and knocked Fox's blocking hands out of position, then took advantage of this by throwing a strong front kick into Fox's jaw.

Fox was lifted off his feet by the force of the kick and landed hard on his back. Fox was winded by the blow and didn't get up right away. This time James wasted no time. He jumped on Fox's chest with his knees and began to use his face like a punching bag.

Fox took two shots to his face before he was able to get his arms up. James fists pounded relentlessly on Fox's bruised arms. Fox couldn't keep his arms up any longer, they fell to the power of James's fists. Fox was struck two more times in the face and his body went limp. James stood from the battle and put his boot on top of Fox's neck. "I Win! But I admit you treated me to a very good game." Before James could finish the deed his mind was filled with what seemed to him as a blank white light, He flew back from Fox and landed hard on the ground.

Krystal, Falco, and Blaze were suddenly released from the odd force. Falco and Blaze fell flat as they were not expecting to be released from the trap. Krystal however landed straight up and sprinted to where Fox dropped his blaster rifle. James stood back up and reached for the weapon but Krystal ripped it from his grasp and pointed it at him. James smiled mockingly at Krystal. "Thank you very much for returning me to a proper servant. Now I think it is my time to leave, we can finish this up some other time."

"You're not going anywhere but to your grave!" Krystal yelled. The blaster rifle bucked in her hands as she sprayed it at James, but yet again he disappeared. Krystal looked around frantically, trying to find where he reappeared.

"Don't bother looking, I'm long gone. I look forward to fighting you in my world, all of you. Tend your wounds for now, I can wait, I have always waited." With that James's voice receded and nothing but the heavy breathing of Krystal was left to be heard.

Krystal ran over to Fox's side and checked his injuries. Falco and Blaze walked over as well. Falco looked sadly down at Fox's badly beaten face. "Is he going to be alright Krystal?"

Krystal sighed. "He should be, he was only knocked unconscious. You two should go check out if he was telling the truth about Starwolf, I need to stay here with Fox. If it was true, send help."

Falco nodded to Blaze and they started towards the edge of the forest. "And Falco." Krystal said. Falco looked back to where Krystal was sitting. "Make sure Katt's alright." Falco nodded and He and Blaze ran towards the Cornerian capitol building.

Krystal could see a river of blood coming from a cut below Fox's eye. She wiped some of the blood off his face and grabbed a few leaves to try to stem the bleed. Krystal was surprised to see Fox's eyes flutter for a moment. The intense bruising only allowed Fox a slight view through his eyelids but he saw Krystal leaning by him. "What happened?"

Krystal took his hand in hers and spoke to him very reassuringly. "He's gone, everyone is alright. He wasn't lying about Jensen either, I could sense it. You just need to sleep a little."

Fox groaned in pain and shut his eyes again. After a moment Fox spoke in a labored voice. "Thank you, for telling me what to do, and everything. Just thanks."

Krystal smiled. "Don't worry about it, just rest. You can't even imagine how you look right now."

Fox smiled slightly then winced in pain. "I don't think I want to know."

* * *

Falco and Blaze ran into the Cornerian capitol building and saw Wolf waiting in the main lobby. He had his feet up on the receptionists desk and laughed as Falco and Blaze entered. "Well, you did decide to come. You're a bit late though, Ferrier's already dead. I didn't think you slumps would actually miss the fight, but... wait where's Fox?"

Falco smiled at the sight of Wolf. "For once I'm happy to see you, but I ain't got time for thirty questions. Blaze can you sense Katt."

Blaze closed his eyes for a moment. "Oh no... Falco that door over there, and hurry!" Blaze pointed to the door from which Katt's thoughts he could sense.

Falco bolted for the door and knocked it down with his shoulder without hesitation. He sprinted down the stairs until he reached the cells. Falco passed each one with a glance hoping to see Katt in one of them. Eventually he found her cell, she was laying on the floor in the middle of the room. Falco whipped out his blaster and shot a hole in the lock of the door.

Falco swung the door open and knelt by Katt's side. Holding onto her arms he brought his face to hers and whispered into her ear. "Katt, are you OK?" He received no response. "Please Katt, talk to me. You're going to be okay now, everything's over.

Tears ran down Falco's face but he made no noise. He checked her pulse and could feel it beating faintly. Katt opened her eyes slightly and noticed Falco kneeling over her. She saw but couldn't comprehend. Falco spoke again, holding back a sob as he did so. "Katt are you OK, are you going to be alright? Katt stared at him for a moment but finally nodded to him. Falco let out a relieved sobbing sigh. "Thank god, Where is Slippy?"

Katt was silent for a long time but she finally looked up at Falco again and muttered. "Dead. I saw." Katt then lost consciousness again. Falco bowed his head for a moment by the news and then took Katt up in his arms to leave the prison.

* * *

A/N: Hey guys, put this chapter up fast and I'm trying to ride the momentum. Few things here to tell you bout. If you want to discuss my story feel free to message me on aim Ghgod30, also one of my friends is starting an Internet broadcasting station and when that gets online I'm going to tell you how to listen in if your interested. Hope you guys enjoyed everything c ya on the flip.

-F.A.E


	13. Chapter 13

Lights Outcast Shadows Chapter 13

A/N: It's hard to believe it's been so long since I've last updated this story. Since chapter 12 got posted I just stopped writing altogether. Some random updates on me since I've been gone: This past fall I started my first semester at college which is not all it's cracked up to be. More importantly for me I've been in a band for about half a year now. In the original line up I was rhythm guitar and backing vocals, but now the band pretty much dissolved and now it's just me and the other guitar player. So I was promoted to lead vocals and now we're looking for a bassist and a drummer. We've been playing mostly avenged sevenfold (which kills trying to sing and play that!) and we're still having fun. Now it's time to get on with the story.

* * *

Light passed through the windows of the hospital room, shining through the cracks in the shades and illuminating the room in a warm glow. The entire room was motionless except for the floating dust motes made visible by the golden bands of light.

Fox awoke slowly his eyes opening barely enough to see, the light was a little painful. He turned in bed to shift onto his side but a pain shot through his chest and so he lay back down onto his back. He pulled his soft white sheets off of him and shifted his legs over the side of the bed. His eyes were becoming more adjusted and he looked around to see where he was.

He recognized the place instantly, it was a hospital. Fox looked down and saw he had been changed into a hospital gown. His left arm was also wrapped and when he tried to move it stayed stiff. There were metal rods in the dressings on his arm. He felt his chest with his other hand and found that it too had been wrapped. As far as he could tell his legs were fine, so he lifted himself off the bed slowly and stood, albeit shakily.

As soon as Fox began to move his body ached, his whole body seemed to protest his movement. After a few moments he had to stop to catch his breath. He stood in the middle of the room panting thinking that maybe he should have stayed in bed.

As soon as he was ready to take another step, the door to his room cracked open. Krystal peeked in the crack of the door and when she didn't see Fox in bed she pushed the door fully open and saw Fox standing there. "Fox, what are you doing out of bed?! You're badly hurt you need to lie down!" Krystal ran to Fox and gave him her support, turning him towards his bed.

"I'm fine." Fox wheezed, his hand gripping his chest.

"You're about as far from fine as I've seen. Now you need to get back to bed, you'll need to rest a lot more before you're up and about again." Krystal helped Fox back into bed and pulled the covers back up to cover him.

"What exactly happened after I went out? Judging by the fact that I'm alive I'm guessing something went right."

Krystal sighed. "Well yes there is good news, a lot of good news actually. I think you could tell already but Starwolf succeeded, they killed Jensen before anyone else could get here. Blaze's plan worked and Bill's entire fleet made it through the spatial rip fine, they had a few enemy ships make it through as well but they took them down as they came through. The majority of their fleet was destroyed as they tried to follow through the rip. Falco found Katt in the capital building… she's not in the best shape. She's hurt much worse than you, and that's saying something. Anyway I'm guessing what you really want to know about is what happened in the fight you were in. Well… he's still alive but he ran."

Fox turned his head away from Krystal looking out the window to his side. He was thinking hard and a frown crossed his face. "Do you know where he went?"

"He disappeared so we don't know for sure the only thing we know is before he left he said he would be waiting in his world." Krystal shrugged. "I don't know what it means but in the very least it got everyone out alive."

Fox nodded. "What about Slippy you didn't mention what happened with him?

Krystal winced. "I… I'm sorry Fox he didn't make it."

Fox brought his fist down onto the bed next to him. "Damn it! If we could've gotten here earlier… Damn!" Tears flowed down Fox's cheek. Fox spoke again but he was just barely audible above his own breath. "We need to find that bastard as soon as we can and destroy him. People need to stop dying."

Krystal sat on the bed next to him and put her arm around his shoulder pulling him in towards her. "I'm sorry Fox. Your right, we need to get him as soon as we can but promise me you'll wait until you're better. It won't help anything you going out like you are now."

Fox looked up at Krystal and she could see he still had silent tears coming. "I know, and I will. It's not like I have a choice anyway, we don't even know where to start looking. But if we're making promises here then promise me you'll let me know what's going on around here. With the whole situation on the planet and the whole crew alright?"

Krystal nodded. "I'll make sure you know everything that's going on. Just make sure that when I'm not here you don't fret about it too much."

They held each other for awhile; Krystal could feel Fox's chest heave as he let go emotionally. When she could feel him calming down she let go and looked him in the eyes. "Are you going to be alright?"

Fox sniffed and his body gave one last shudder as he steeled himself to regain his composure. "I'll be fine. It's going to be horrible staying in this bed all the time so just make sure you visit often ok?"

Krystal stood to leave. "I'm only going to be away when I'm finding out what's going on, all the rest of my time will be here with you. Is there anything else you want while I'm gone?"

"Just see if there's anything they can give me to help me sleep. It's not going to be easy sleeping for awhile."

Krystal nodded and walked to the door.

Fox called to her just before she left. "Thanks Krys, I love you."

Krystal warmed to his words. "I love you too Fox, I'll hurry back." The fact that he relied so heavily on her was somewhat empowering for her. She left the room and started her way down to Katt's room. The emotional tie with Fox was growing and she could tell. _"It's good to hold something bright in dark times."_ She thought.

Even though there were very minimal injuries for what had taken place the hospital was still unusually busy. Krystal passed many sad faces on her way and had to dodge many frantic doctors and nurses. She finally came to the door where Katt was staying. She pushed the door open slowly and saw Falco seated by Katt's bed. Katt was still unconscious and Falco didn't turn when Krystal entered. She had the odd feeling of invisibility in the room. "So Katt's still out? What did the doctors say about it?"

Falco still didn't turn to her but he answered her still looking at Katt. "They were worried about all the breaks and the internal bleeding at first but now they're saying she's stable." Falco paused and sighed deeply. "But then they also said that she's in a coma and as far as they know she may never recover."

Krystal's heart sank and she saw Falco's head dip towards Katt's bed. This was going to be a very hard time for Falco and she could tell. Krystal put her hand on Falco's shoulder and lowered herself so she could speak to him. "Falco I know this is hard for you, and the only thing I have to say is never give up hope. Believe that Katt can make it through and she will."

Falco stayed slumped over Katt's bed. "You don't know that. But at the same time I'm never going to give up hope. I'm never giving up again. I don't care if there's nothing I can do at this point; I'm staying here until she gets better. I may not have so much faith to say that I can make something happen by believing it, but it's not going to hurt anything now anyway."

Krystal was increasingly saddened every second she stayed here. "I'm sorry Falco, and I sincerely hope Katt recovers."

Falco sat back up in his chair but stayed looking forward. "I know… thanks. I'm sorry it seems like I'm being so negative…"

"Don't worry about it, with how much you've been through it's not your fault. But I stay with what I said before. You being here will have an effect." Krystal walked to the door and opened it. "I was out for awhile but even while I was out I knew that Fox was still with me, if you stay with Katt you're doing something right." Krystal walked out the door but stood in front of it for a moment. She focused as hard as she could and could barely make out Katt's thoughts. _"She's strong she'll be fine."_

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
_

Bill sat back in the chair that used to be Pepper's. He was completely exhausted; he had been awake for more than 32 hours straight. Corneria seemed to be completely united once again after the light was shone on all of Ferrier's treachery. Not to say that it would be an easy road ahead, there would be a certain degree of turmoil for a long time to come. He was surprised that as he sat down there was no urgent message coming for him. He reveled in the first moment of silence he had had in such a long time. His eyes started to close as he started to drift off. Then breaking him out of his half sleep came a knock on his door. "Urg… come in."

The door opened and Krystal stepped in. "Hello Bill. I hope I'm not interrupting you."

Bill sat up in his chair more properly and rubbed his eyes a bit to wake himself. "Not with anything important besides I've been meaning to see you guys about what exactly happened. I haven't seen any of you since we've been back and Starwolf took all the credit for taking out Jensen. Is something the matter with Fox? I was expecting him."

Krystal sighed and took a seat in front of Bill. "Well it's a really long story but I think if anyone deserves to hear it it's you. Firstly the reason you haven't seen anyone since you've been back is because Fox was seriously injured. It's not horrible now but he's still not supposed to leave his bed. We also found Katt here and she was even worse. She's still in a coma. So I'm the only person really fit to talk to you."

Bill frowned. "I see, I will try to see them as soon as I can. But how did that happen if you didn't even fight against Jensen?"

"Now this is the long part. When we were on our way here we fought with… well I don't know how to say this without sounding crazy. We fought against the remnant of Fox's father."

Bill gasped. "What, James? That's not possible he died?"

"Yes well he was apparently reanimated and reengineered with apparoid parts by Andros and now he's just a super powerful Frankenstein's monster. Now there's going to be something even more difficult I'm going to try to explain. You remember how we recently took out Andross for good?"

"Well yeah I don't know how I could not it was everywhere."

"Well then you know how we had to destroy his machines that kept him tied to life. There was a bit of a problem with how we did that. We went on the ground to take out Andros's only remaining host, since we destroyed his machines he wouldn't be able to jump to anyone and he would die. Well while we were fighting I used an ability I have where I can temporarily blank someone's mind out. Well when our mind's touched Andross took the opportunity to enter my mind."

Bill stopped her there. "Okay wait a second. So you were telling me you didn't actually kill Andross and instead you were just what, like his puppet for awhile?"

Krystal frowned and shook her head. "He was too weak to take over; he was dormant in my mind. We didn't know about it until recently either. Regardless to say we were going to try to find some way to deal with this after the whole deal with Ferrier but it seems to have taken care of itself for better or for worse. We were being held motionless while Fox was being beaten horribly by that monster and so I tried to use that technique again." Krystal was looking really down by this point. "Of course this was the only thing I could do and it worked well, Andross fled my mind and is now in control of James's body which he ran with."

Bill leaned back in his chair. "This is way too much for me to even get right now. Is there any immediate threat?"

"I don't think so, Andross said that he was going to wait for us, and I can't feel his presence anywhere so I think he's doing the same as us, licking our wounds."

Bill rested his head on his hands. "Well then there's really nothing for me to do except wait. Just make sure that I know if anything comes up. If you think you can try to stop Fox from doing anything stupid."

Krystal nodded "I've already talked to him about… most everything. I haven't told him about the how Andross invaded father's body. I'm going to wait until he gets better before I tell him that."

Bill nodded. "Alright well I haven't slept in forever so I'm going to be going for a while but I'll be visiting everyone in the hospital as soon as I can."

Krystal stood and began to leave. "I'll leave you to your rest then. Fox will be looking forward to seeing you. Good bye Bill."

* * *

When Krystal returned to the hospital from her meeting with Bill it was already dark outside. She walked up to the front desk. "Hello, can I go see Fox?"

The nurse looked up from what she was doing. "Sorry miss he's already gone to sleep, no visitors right now."

"_Dang." _Krystal thought. She went over to the waiting room and sat down. It was then that she realized just how tired she was. Her eyelids began to droop when Blaze came over and sat next to her. "You couldn't get in either then?"

Krystal looked surprised at him. "No I couldn't, why are you still here though? Shouldn't you be trying to sleep by now?"

Blaze laughed awkwardly. "Well normally yes but I really didn't have anywhere to sleep."

Krystal put her palm to her face. "Oh wow I'm sorry I can't believe I forgot about something like that."

Blaze just smiled. "Don't worry about it you've been through a lot. Besides it's not really that big a deal."

Krystal fished through her pocket expectantly and pulled out a handful of money. "Oh thank the goddess I held on to some money, we can go get a hotel room to stay at while everyone's in the hospital. Does that sound like a good idea?"

Blaze nodded and they both got up to leave the hospital. Blaze sighed and looked up at the ceiling as they walked. "Do you think when everyone's better we're going to be going after that guy that attacked us?"

Krystal kept her weary eyes in front and started to signal for a taxi. "I don't think we'll even be able to search for him at all. We have no idea where he could be."

Blaze was silent for a moment. "I have an idea where he might be."

Krystal turned to him quickly. "What do you mean? You know where he is?"

Blaze sighed. "Maybe. You know how he said he was going to his world? Well I think he might have gone to the alternate dimension that I came from. If you think about it makes sense, he created that dimension with his gravity bomb so why not call it his world? Where else would he go?"

Krystal waited a few moments stunned. "I guess it does kind of make sense. It's not like we have anywhere else to look anyway. So I guess that should be our primary spot to look. Although even if it wasn't I would have tried to get us to go there next anyway."

Blaze looked at Krystal confused. Krystal looked over to him to. "Well if we had nowhere to start looking me may as well have started to help you out. We're way overdue on that." She smiled at him.

Blaze smiled back. "Thanks Krystal I appreciate it. But between you and me I really hope I'm wrong."

The taxi pulled up to the two and they got in and sat down. "Me too Blaze for your sake."

* * *

A/N: There I'm back finished this in two days since you guys so promptly responded to my call. This was a big break from action but it's kind of understandable. Also this is my first 3,000 word chapter yeah.


	14. Chapter 14

` L.o.s Chapter 14

A/N: You might want to go back and check chapter 13 to make sure you read it because I took down the original message and replaced it with a chapter. Remember guys I thrive on reviews and I tend to stop for great periods of time when I don't get them and I don't want to do that again. Just saying, I hope you enjoy the story and I hope I see it through to its finish. Check my profile if you want to get in touch with me. BIG DEAL HERE I start off talking about the family and friends Blaze left behind in the alt. dimension. I wasn't sure if it was completely clear and I didn't want anyone getting confused.

* * *

There was an odd feeling on the ship, the feeling of time. It wasn't something you could easily place but it felt as if nothing changed, that time stood still. The metallic shaft that connected the main body of the ship to the engine core was, like the rest of the ship, in a suspended state. As the ship made the jump to this dimension it seemed to suck all energy out of the vessel, the crew had to do everything in their power to maintain life support systems. Even with the amazing technical prowess of the crew the engine refused to work, the whole ship had been drifting for the past two years and nothing seemed ready to change. The only hope that the crew still has is the sole member of the crew who they managed to send back into their home dimension, even with that knowledge morale was low on the drifting ship.

A loud bang rang out throughout the ship, disturbing the silence and stillness. The automatic doors on one end of the hallway opened and a blue fox staggered through. He barely made it through the doors and immediately fell as he came inside. A few boxes broke his fall and he lay there for a moment, completely out of energy. The only noise in the shaft now was the heavy breathing of the man and a slight ring that continued to ring through the ship. As the man regained some energy he turned himself up to the wall in a sitting position. He looked morosely down to his leg. A large piece of metal shrapnel from the explosion had torn through his suit and embedded itself deep within the bone of his ankle. Blood ran down his leg and he gritted his teeth against the pain. He took his eyes off the wound as it just seemed to make the pain greater.

On the other side of the hall three more of the crew bolted through the door. The woman in front of the group ran over to the injured man. "Damon! What happened?"

She dropped down to inspect his wound and he cringed at her touch. "Ahh let it be for now, Reina. Listen you need to isolate this section off from the rest of the ship, I think the explosion could have punctured the hull of the ship."

Reina turned back to the two behind her and with a nod they ran off to complete the task. "There now how about we get you back to the infirmary?" Damon was very tall and of thick build, this would make a normal carry very difficult for Reina. Reina dropped down with her back to Damon. "Grab my shoulders I'll carry you piggyback."

Damon did as he was told and grabbed onto Reina's shoulders. "Be careful of the metal sticking out of my leg." Damon warned her as he brought his legs up to be held. Reina grabbed his legs and stood, this was quite a bit easier than she had expected. As she began to walk away from the back end of the ship she could hear the mechanical doors lock shut.

As Reina walked she made sure to keep up simple conversation to make sure that Damon was holding on okay. She could feel the blood running down her arm from the wound in Damon's leg. Finally she arrived at the Infirmary. The door opened for her and as soon as she could she let Damon down on one of the beds. The sole doctor they had on the ship came over immediately. He looked gravely down at the wound. "Oh that is not good to see, can you stay here with me Reina? I will need an extra pair of hands for the surgery." Reina nodded.

* * *

Blaze stared out the window of the hotel. What he saw seemed so foreign, the crowded city was nothing like he had ever seen. Although Cerinia was advanced there was hardly this level of crowding. Due to the number of people that inhabited the city it seemed to have energy of its own. Not only was the city completely different, so was the culture. None of this had been on his mind since the first few days of his visit however. Due to the number of people in the city there was a constant background noise of mental chatter. He hadn't been sleeping well because of it and he had numerous headaches lately. This was one of those times.

He turned back to the table that he had brought over to the couch where he sat. It was covered in paper with numerous sketches and calculations. He was so close to finishing the design of the device he had been working on his entire time on Corneria. A larger scale version of the device that made the jump back to this dimension. He took another look over his scattered data and drawings, there was something that he was missing but he couldn't think of what it was. He dropped back on the couch, his head pounding.

Just then Krystal walked in the door of the hotel room. Blaze lifted a hand to her in greetings, the best he could do at the moment. Krystal looked concernedly at him. "You're still in pain I see. You really shouldn't be stressing your brain while you're head hurts like this."

Blaze rubbed his eyes as if to magically wipe away the pain. "Oh I know but I can't help but work on this you know? How in the heck are you able to manage all this noise? It's driving me insane!"

Krystal sat down next to him. "Well you have to remember, you're mental powers are a lot stronger than mine, it's probably not as easy for you to block out all the other thoughts around. Open your eyes I have something that can help the pain."

Blaze opened his eyes and Krystal handed him a pill bottle. "Those are painkillers; they should help reduce the pain of those headaches. I'll go get you some water." Krystal stood up and walked over to the kitchen area of the room.

Blaze took two pills out of the bottle. "So how are things at the hospital? Is everyone recovering all right?"

Krystal spoke to him from the fridge as she took out a bottle of water. "Yes everyone seems to be getting better. Fox is to the point where he may just walk out of the hospital; He really doesn't like being still for so long." Krystal walked back into the living room and tossed the water bottle to Blaze. "Katt's stable finally so I'm hoping to convince Falco to come back here tonight. It's easy to tell he hasn't been sleeping well."

Blaze placed the two pills in his mouth and took a swig from the water bottle. "Thanks very much." Blaze capped the water and set it aside. "Well I really do hope that they get better soon. You said that funeral was going to be held soon right."

Krystal nodded grimly. "That's right. Bill set it up as soon as we found Slippy…" Krystal paused and it was obvious she was deeply saddened by the death of her friend. "It's going to be a big ceremony, the funeral of a hero." Krystal was silent for a moment and she suddenly stood again. "I'm going to go back to the hospital to talk with Falco. Keep that medicine close by you'll probably need it." Blaze nodded as Krystal walked away.

* * *

Damon woke up dazed, his head pounding. He looked around and saw he was in the infirmary. The doctor was nowhere to be seen. He sat up painfully, his side was killing him; he probably had some internal bleeding. He looked down at where the Piece of shrapnel had lodged in his ankle. It didn't hurt at the moment and he expected it was most likely because of an anesthetic. The metal had been removed and his leg was tightly bandaged. He could see a bit of blood that seeped through the bandages. He was not optimistic of his chances of regaining the movement in his foot as the metal most likely cut a tendon. He also noticed bandages on his right arm and across his chest. He must have been hit by more shrapnel than he realized. While he was checking himself over Reina walked into the room. "Well you really did a number on yourself, and the ship. Just what the hell happened?"

The doctor followed behind her and voiced his concern. "He really should rest, that concussive blast did more damage than is visible."

Reina refused to back off. "This is too important to wait. Damon, please explain what happened in the lab.

Damon could recall his work in the lab and realized exactly how much damage this event had done. With a leak in the hull near the laboratory it isn't possible to get any major work done. "Well you know how I was working on getting the dimensional transport up and running again?" Reina nodded. "Well I realized that the main problem we were having is that the whenever we tried to get energy into the thing, the energy would disappear. So I started work on a system that would securely contain enough energy for a jump but wouldn't go in the transport until we are making the jump. That way there is no time for the energy to be lost. Well I was almost finished with the energy system but when I put energy into the chambers…"

Reina sighed. "That's what caused the explosion?"

"Must be, I don't understand why it happened but it seems that energy acts differently than in our dimension and it proved to be volatile in that case. The only thing I don't understand is how exactly we managed to contain the energy when we built the shuttle for Blaze." Damon's mind raced with possibilities but was soon cut short as his headache returned.

Both Reina and the doctor winced at Damon's pain. The empathetic link the entire crew had was very strong and sometimes caused problems, like the feeling of another's pain. Luckily it is nowhere near as severe as the person who felt it originally. Reina turned from Damon. "You can go back to rest, hopefully you will be well by the time we get the labs back in working order."

The doctor and Damon watched as Reina left. The doctor turned to Damon, shaking his head. "Sometimes it's hard to believe you two are married."

Damon smiled through his pain. "She just knows how to be efficient when a problem arises that's all. It makes her a good leader." A surging pain swept through Damon again. "Ah alright I think it's time for me to get back to sleep."

The doctor nodded. "Here take these it'll make sleep come almost instantly, it's a favor to you and to me as well."

Reina walked across the bridge of the ship with thoughts floating through her mind. She knew she had to get the labs back but it was no small feat. This dimension was dangerous and it was almost impossible to go outside the ship. It was by lucky chance that the ship itself was made of something that could resist the effects of the space here. Recently when they arrived they had someone go outside the ship to work on the outside of the engines. He died out there, the space outside corroded his suit and then his body. It was a horrific lesson in the dangers they faced. But they learned something else from that sad event. They learned how long their suits would last outside. Hopefully if they pinpointed they leak they could take care of it quickly and reel in the one who worked on it. "Cassidy use the computer to pinpoint the location of the hull breach. Chris how many environment suits do we have left?"

"We only have one, Captain. But surely you can't expect to go out there to fix the hull. There would be no way to seal it that quickly."

"There is. There may not be many people that could repair it in such a short time, but as long as we pinpoint its location I have enough skill with the fuse gun to get it done and then come back in."

Chris stood from his console to face Reina. "Captain that is a suicide mission!"

Reina smiled at him. "It's good to see you have so much faith in me. But in all seriousness there is a chance something could go wrong, but what do you suppose we do otherwise. We can't just keep drifting like this we need to get back to the labs so we can do anything."

Chris grew silent. "I… I'll get the suit for you, I still don't like this but I trust your judgment."

Reina pulled the suit up past her legs. It was horribly tight, but necessarily so. She put her arms into the sleeves and started to clasp up the suit around her torso. She struggled a moment at her chest but was ultimately able to clasp the final clasp. The helmet she put on was much easier than the rest of the suit it slid over her head easily and clasped the suit at the neck. As she picked up her fuse gun she walked out of the storage room which was her makeshift changing room. She hit a button on her suit which melded together the different pieces of the suit at a molecular level to guarantee a complete seal. She walked up to the door that led to the hallway Damon was found in and opened a comm. link to the bridge. As she stepped through the door into the hallway she waited to hear the doors shut behind her. "Okay seal the doors behind me and open the labs."

She got no response but she heard the doors seal behind her and the doors in front of her opened revealing the labs. Everything seemed fairly normal, which in its own way was slightly eerie. She walked out into the labs and was surprised that they maintained a normal sense of gravity. She could see the wreckage of the device that Damon was building, there were metal shards stuck in various areas of the lab. But she was uninterested in these; she immediately walked over to the hull of the ship. There was a slight hiss coming from somewhere on the wall. She hit a button on her helmet to check exactly where the leak was coming from. A mapping of the wall showed the location and she immediately knelt down to work on it. She didn't even bother to take out the shrapnel, it was unnecessary all she needed to do was to make sure the leak was sealed. She fired up the fuse gun and began to weld the hull back together.

She had just begun to fuse another piece of metal to the area when a voice came in over her helmet comm.. "Reina you need to get back here right now!"

Reina continued to work. "I still have time I'm adding some more metal to the area."

"No not that! Andross just flew into this dimension and he's coming towards us!"

Reina's jaw dropped. She immediately threw down her fuse gun and started to run back to the hallway. A huge bang came from somewhere near her and she dove into the doorway. Another explosion came as the doors were closing behind her. A huge piece of metal flew inches above her and lodged itself in the next set of doors in front of her. She sighed in relief. "Quickly Seal that door and open this one I need to get back!"

Before she could get an answer the doors behind her blew open and she was sent flying by the explosion. She connected hard with the doors in front of her, barely missing the piece of metal that was lodged there. She began to float away from the ship as the entire section she was in was ripped away by the explosions. As she turned in space she saw Andross. But he was huge, much bigger than should have been possible. He charged for another attack. And then just like that all time stopped in the dimension.

* * *

A/N: There you go finally worked up another one. Make sure to check chapter 13 to make sure you didn't miss it. And don't forget to review, I'm going to try for a chapter a week from now on, wish me luck. Check my profile if you want to contact me.


	15. Chapter 15

L.o.s chapter 15

A/N: Trying to keep the chapters coming because I feel bad about neglecting it for so long. Hopefully I can even have a backlog and get a chapter done a week. (This probably will not happen.)

* * *

Fox woke to the sound of the alarm at his bedside. The Beeping was stopped short as his hand come down on the clock. He wiped the sleep out of his eyes and flung the covers off. He spun his legs over the bed and sat there for a moment. The bandages that covered his head were gone and as far as he knew the concussion he received wasn't too bad. The bandages on his chest remained but he hardly ever had pain anymore, only when he was exerting himself more than he should. He sat for a moment thinking about everything that had happened. He quickly brought himself to a conclusion, he was leaving today. There was nothing holding him anymore, he knew he may need to wait for Falco but as far as he was concerned he was gone from this hospital. He stood and got dressed quickly. Krystal walked in as he was sitting down to lace up his boots. "I should've known they wouldn't keep you longer than you wanted to stay."

Krystal walked over and sat down next to Fox on the bed. He kissed her on the cheek and went back to tying his boots. "Hey, how's everything?"

Krystal had gotten used to this question; it was used whenever Fox wanted to know what had been going on while he was in bed. "Well I haven't been to see Katt yet but Falco went down there when we came in. And from what Blaze was telling me it sounds like he's near completion on the design of the dimensional transport. He said he wants to name it Jumper."

Fox chuckled. "Ha, that would be fun to say in the middle of a battle. Quick fire up the Jumper!" Fox laughed at the novel idea for a moment. "But I was more of asking you, how's everything with you?"

Krystal smiled at him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "I'm great, especially now that you're out of bed." She nuzzled at his neck and caused him to let out a sigh.

Fox turned to her and put his arms around her. He stood up pulling her up with him. They kissed for a moment and as they pulled away Fox spoke in a bit above a whisper. "Really though, I know that the funeral was hard on all of us and I don't want you to feel like you just need to pack it away."

Krystal smiled at him and rested the side of her head on his chest. "I wasn't in a good place at the funeral but really I'm fine. It isn't fun mixing my own sadness with all the sadness I felt from everyone there, but now that that's over I can deal with the pain. I'm sure you noticed Blaze was in an even worse spot and he never even knew Slippy. I'm slightly happy I never became so advanced in my telepathy it seems to be more of a curse than anything."

Fox put a hand on her head. "Well I'm glad you're feeling better. Do you want to go see how Katt is doing now?"

Krystal pulled away from Fox but still held her arms around his shoulder. "Well I don't really know if you should be leaving the hospital so early." She feigned a concerned tone. "In order to prove to me that you really are healthy enough to leave you're going to have to carry me to Katt's room."

Fox laughed and immediately lifted Krystal from her hips up onto his shoulder. Krystal shrieked from shock and then began to laugh. "I was joking, put me down! You better not leave the room like this!"

* * *

Fox and Krystal were walking down the hall of the hospital. When they started to get close to Katt's room they were stopped by a young nurse. "Oh hello Mr. McCloud, it's good to see you're feeling better."

"Hello, Jenny was it?" The nurse nodded and Fox continued. "I really appreciate what you guys did for me, but could you let the doctor know that I'm leaving the hospital today?"

"Yes I'll make sure to do that. But anyway I was sent to find you; Falco sent me to tell you that Katt is awake and doing well all things considered."

Both Fox and Krystal were slightly taken aback by this, no one was even sure if Katt would recover and the fact that she did so quickly was extremely surprising. Their surprise quickly turned to joy. Fox was grinning and started to walk briskly towards Katt's room. "Let's go Krystal we need to go see her." As Krystal began to follow him Fox yelled over his shoulder to the nurse. "Thanks a lot Jenny we really appreciate it."

They reached the door and opened it up quickly. When they walked in they saw Katt sitting up with a slightly bemused smile and Falco sitting next to her. "Hey guys what's going on? I mean that in two senses; how are you and what has exactly been going on around here?"

Falco stood to meet Fox and Krystal. "Hey guys it's great that you're here. I should probably explain what Katt just said. She can't seem to remember past about two months ago. I've been trying to fill her in a bit but now that you guys are here you can help me out."

Katt smiled and cocked her head to one side. "So from what I've heard there's been a lot of bad stuff going on. And it looks like I was probably trying to play hero from how bad off I am."

Fox sat down in the chair on the other side of Katt's bed and Krystal sat on the arm of the chair. "Well we don't really know exactly what happened with you because you were down here while Ferrier took over. All we know for sure is that you got captured and that's most likely how you got those injuries. How are you feeling?"

Katt sighed. "Oh I'm alright I guess. "My head and chest still hurt but it's just aching now, I'm kind of disappointed that both my legs got messed up though. The nurse said I'm gunna be in a wheelchair a while. But hey it's cool, from what I heard you guys already took out the bad guys so it's all R&R from here on out."

Fox slowly turned to a frown. "Well not exactly we still need to fly out really soon. Someone escaped and he's very dangerous so we're going after him soon. Now that you're awake we'll probably be flying out soon. You are okay to fly now right Falco?"

Falco nodded. "Now that I'm sure that Katt's alright I can go whenever you're ready."

Katt looked at Falco thoughtfully she appeared quite conflicted. Fox nodded to Falco respectfully. "That's good to hear, we should go check on Blaze and see if he's done with his project. If he is you can expect to be leaving in a few days."

Falco gave him the thumbs up and Fox and Krystal said goodbye to both Falco and Katt as they left. As soon as they left Katt spoke, this time she didn't have the same cheer in her voice. "How long was I unconscious?"

Falco shrugged. "Somewhere near a week and a half. I don't know for sure, I haven't really been keeping track of the time."

Katt lowered her head. "And were you here while I was out?"

Falco nodded. "Of course, I was worried about you. And if I could I would stay longer, but I can't leave this unfinished. I'm just happy to find out you're going to be alright."

Katt wiped a tear away from the side of her eye. "I really wish I knew what was going on, and I wish I could walk. I don't want to just lay here hoping that you come back okay."

Falco sat back down and rested his arms on Katt's bed. "While I was out in space and I heard that someone had assassinated the General and taken over Corneria the first thing I thought of was the fact that you were still here. While there was nothing I could do about it at the time I kept fighting so I could hopefully see you again." Tears were growing in Katt's eyes. "Can you promise me that that's what you'll do to? Fight to get better even though you can't directly help I'll have that peace of mind."

Katt let out a small sob which she then suppressed. "Falco when in the hell did you get so philosophical on me?" She smiled through her tears at him. "Fine I'll do that for you. I'll make sure to keep fighting. But you have to promise me that you will come back."

Falco nodded and he sat down on the side of her bed. Katt wrapped her arms around him and cried into his shoulder. She whispered to him barely audibly. "You should know I hate feeling helpless. And I don't want to be kept in the dark on what's going on. Please tell me the whole story from the start."

Falco pulled away from her and began to tell her exactly what had been happening. "Well it started with the broadcast I received shortly after you left for Corneria…"

* * *

Fox and Krystal walked into their hotel suite. Fox called out as they entered. "Hey Blaze, we've got good news." He waited for a response but didn't receive one. "Where the heck is he?"

Krystal shrugged and they walked into the living room area. There they found Blaze sleeping lounged out on the couch with his papers overflowing from the table onto the floor. Krystal smiled and whispered to Fox. "He must have stayed up all night working on the jumper."

Fox noticed that one of the papers in the pile was completely unwrinkled, since it caught his eye he decided to pick it up. The only word on the paper was "Done". Fox smiled. "Well I guess he wanted to see that we knew he finished it then. I guess I should go talk to Bill about setting out soon. Maybe we should wait for Blaze to get up first so he can bring his design with us. We can probably get someone to build it while we go out searching."

Krystal sat down in one of the chairs. "Well that sounds good to me, especially the waiting part. I'm not used to so much happening in one day like this."

"Well I'm sorry to break it to you but I just woke up so I guess that throws out that part of the plan." Blaze pulled himself off the couch with a noticeable effort, half falling in the process. "I'm ready to go whenever you guys are."

Fox had to stifle a laugh. "Umm sorry but I don't really think you are. You almost just fell off the couch; how about you get some more rest."

Blaze stood up quickly. "No way, I want to get off this planet as soon as possible, no offence. I can't get a good night's sleep here anyway what with all this chatter."

Krystal lifted herself from the chair she had just barely sat down in and stretched. "Well alright let's just get everything taken care of at once then. Grab those papers and I'll get a bag for them."

While Blaze was gathering all his papers together Fox asked him a question. "Well I'm guessing I already know the answer to this with what you said about Corneria but do you trust the scientists here to build that device without you?"

Krystal came back with a plastic bag and Blaze quickly stuffed his papers in. "Oh there's no worry about that. I included instructions that are clear as day, I already did the hard part. Well we still do need to find the energy source but I have the coordinates to one of the few areas left that contains that material."

Fox nodded. He had completely forgotten about needing to find the fuel source still. Now that he thought about it, it really did not seem to be that important. It's not like they had any leads anyway they were just as likely to locate the shell of his father on the way there as searching for him. "Alright let's head out to meet Bill. If we're lucky we can get off the planet in the next couple days."

* * *

Fox, Falco, Krystal and Blaze stood in front of the GreatFox. R.O.B brought the ship down when Bill told him it was safe to land. Bill also had some troops bring their Arwings back from their landing zone, and now they were safe in the docking bay of the GreatFox. Being this close to the ship made everyone realize just how big the ship really was. No one really had anything to carry with them besides their flight suits. Blaze was the only person who was carrying any more than that. When he was showing the design of his jumper to the Cornerian development team he noticed quite a few interesting bits of experimental technology which he was allowed to borrow for study. Fox turned to the crew. "Ok I may as well get this out of the way now although I think you all know what we're setting out to do. Our main priority right now is to destroy the Frankenstein's monster that was my father. But since we have no clue where to start looking we're going to be trying to gather the energy source for the jumper. For all we know this could lead us where we need to go. But if we gather any information in the process we may need to change objectives quickly. Everyone understand?"

There was unanimous understanding of the crew. But as soon as they were about to start up the boarding ramp of the GreatFox they heard a voice from behind them. Katt, in a wheelchair, rolled up to the hanger. "It sounds like a good time; I think I should come along."

Fox was taken aback. "Katt you can't be serious you're in no shape to travel. You just woke up a couple days ago, not to mention you're legs are still broken and you still don't have your memory back!"

Katt continued up to them in her wheelchair. "I don't care; I can still fly so I can still help. Bill already gave me the ok and my ship is already on board."

Falco walked down the ramp to stand in front of Katt. "Why are you doing this? This isn't so important that you should risk your life over it."

"Screw you! You wouldn't understand! I have a bad feeling about what you guys are setting out to do. Ever since I woke up I've been having nightmares and every single one of them you all die and there's nothing I can do about it!" Katt began to sob. "I don't care what you say I've made up my mind and I'm coming with you."

Falco walked around Katt and got behind her on the ramp. "Hey what are you doing?" Katt asked as she couldn't see behind her."

Falco took the handles of the wheelchair and started to push her up the ramp. "Well you said you don't care what I say so why bother trying to argue with you. I guess you're coming with us."

Katt wiped her eyes and allowed herself be pushed up the ramp. She whispered low enough so only Falco could hear. "Thank you, I'm glad you understand."

They all continued up the ramp to board the ship. They all had their thoughts on different things but everything was turned towards the uncertainty of the future. But they were in a much better position than many as although the future was unknown they were the ones with the power to shape it.

* * *

A/N: There you go, a bit shorter than I wanted but I didn't want to drag out a boring chapter either. Check my profile for contact info and don't forget to review.


	16. Chapter 16

L.o.s Chapter 16

A/N: Alright even though I still have no reviews I'm carrying on. Give me a shout if you're enjoying it, that's all I want.

Fox poured over the map of Lylat. There were a few red circles marking the areas that Blaze expected to find the energy source for the jumper. Fox had his doubts when he saw that a few of the markings were in seemingly in open space but Blaze assured him that the source would be there. Fox didn't know where Blaze was getting his information from but he figured there was nothing he could except go see for himself if Blaze was right. Fox was also slightly skeptical about the supposed energy source. Blaze explained it as a type of crystal that when super heated produced insane levels of energy. They would only need three good sized crystals for a two way trip between dimensions. Fox thought at first he would try to choose the places where it would be most likely for his father to go. When he realized this would be impossible considering he had no idea how to think ahead of someone who was clearly insane. He instead decided to pick the spot closest to Corneria, this lead them to an area that was blank on the map. Fox wasn't very worried if there would be anything there or not. If it turned out to be nothing they were still set up on a straight shot to another marked area.

"R.O.B take us to this location." Fox brought up the area he chose on the star map. "If there's anything in the area let me know right when we get there."

R.O.B offered an affirmative and brought the ship on course for the marked area. "Estimated time of arrival is one hour from the current time."

Fox walked away from the center of the bridge. The rest of the crew had gone about their own tasks when they got on board. He remembered Katt going down to the hangar to show Falco how she was going to manage in the cockpit. Blaze followed along with the intent of modifying the ship if the need presented itself. In reality it was more likely that he wanted a chance to try out some of the things he took from the Cornerian R&D area. He wasn't sure where Krystal went and he was slightly worried that she may have a lapse back into the state she had been in before their invasion of Corneria. He left the bridge in hopes of finding her and making sure she was doing alright. As he rounded the corner he was surprised to find Krystal standing in front of him. "Oh hey I was just about to go looking for you. How are you feeling?"

Krystal had an odd look about her; she looked as if something was majorly wrong. "I'm fine but there's something I really need to tell you Fox." Fox waited for her to continue and she let out a labored sigh. "You remember when you were fighting with your father and he knocked you down and started beating you? Well the only way I could stop him was to do the same thing I did when we fought Andross when he was using General Scales's body. Andross left my body but the only person he could have gone to was your father."

Fox was stuck in a stunned silence. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?" He didn't sound particularly angry just confused.

"You already had so much to worry about I didn't want you to stress yourself while you were still injured." Her eyes shifted away from Fox. She felt just as bad leaving details from as if she had lied to him. "I'm sorry but I was afraid you would break down if you heard about it so soon."

"I can understand your concern, and I don't know what I would have done if you had told me. But regardless I'm fine now so if there's anything else that you kept from me then I would like to hear it."

Krystal was surprised at how well he took the news. She thought for a moment if there had been anything she had left out. Suddenly it came back to her, what James had said as he left. "He said I look forward to fighting you in my world. I don't know what he meant though."

Fox thought about it for a moment. "Hmm yeah I don't really get anything from it but he apparently intends to fight us again. Well that's all the better for us I guess although I wish he knew what he meant by his world. Maybe he was talking about Venom."

Krystal shook her head. "I don't think so; the people of Venom don't want anything to do with him anymore. I can't expect that's where he would run to; he would be at more of a disadvantage than us."

"Hmm I guess you're right, well we'll stick with what we planned for right now but I'll go ask Bill if he has any idea what he could have meant. Hopefully he can get some information about Andross we didn't already know." Fox turned to go back to the bridge.

Katt sat in the cockpit of her fighter. "See I can still fly I'll be fine."

Falco crouched next to the ship. "Well I don't doubt you can hit everything on the console and manage the flight stick but what about the foot controls. You can't put that kind of pressure on your legs."

Katt looked down to the two pedal controls. "Oh don't worry about that I can still move everything above the knee so I can just push down on them like that."

"Katt your legs are broken! You can't tell me that pushing them like that isn't going to damage them further. It's probably really painful too."

Katt looked down at the foot board of the cockpit. She knew he was right but she couldn't concede she needed to be able to fly. Blaze peered into the cockpit. "Oh that's simple I can just hook the foot pedals up to a device that will allow you to control the pedals with your thighs."

Katt looked up at him in astonishment. "What's your name again?"

"My name's Blaze." He said smiling down at her.

"Well then Blaze if you can do that for me then I will owe you big time. Falco help me out here." She held her hand out so that Falco could help lift her out of the cockpit. Falco pulled her up and helped her back into her wheelchair.

"Don't worry about it. To be honest I get bored if I'm not working on some kind of project. And you're all helping me out too so I need to help as much as I can."

"No matter what you say I owe you. Falco do you mind taking a walk with me?" She looked down at the wheelchair below her. "Metaphorically I guess." She laughed at her choice of words.

"Sure." Falco followed behind Katt's chair as they passed Blaze. As soon as they left Blaze jumped in the cockpit of Katt's ship and began to make the adjustments. As they left the hangar Falco got behind Katt's wheelchair to push.

"No don't, I want to walk with you not get pushed along." Falco moved up level with Katt. "So you really don't mind me coming along?"

Falco sighed and looked to the ceiling in search of words. "Well I can't say I don't mind because of course I'm worried but it's your choice to make."

"You know I have to do this right? After I heard everything that was going on I know that if I can help than I have to."

"You don't need to explain yourself to me. Remember when I told you how stressed I was when I knew there was nothing I could do to help you while you were on Corneria? Well although you were in a spot like that too you had a chance to make a difference. You know that if I had a chance to save you I would have risked something rasher than this so I'm in no position to judge you on this." Falco looked down at Katt. "And besides it's not like I don't want you around."

"Thanks that's good to hear. I really want to know what happened now. It seems like I must have forgotten more than you told me. You aren't acting like yourself."

Falco looked surprised. "What do you mean?"

Katt smiled at him. "I didn't mean it as a bad thing, you just seem to be doing a lot more thinking than before, No offense."

Falco laughed. "None taken, I was doing a bit of thinking before all this broke out, just trying to get my life in perspective. Thinking about what mattered to me and what I should be doing." While he spoke Katt's jaw dropped. "Well don't look so surprised!" Falco laughed.

"Sorry." Katt giggled. "That's just so unlike you, and…" She was cut off as the GreatFox shuddered violently. Katt almost tipped in her chair but Falco was able to keep her upright as he braced against the wall.

A call came out over the GreatFox's P.A system. "Everyone get to the hangar for a quick brief and deployment. We've got trouble!"

The whole crew gathered in the hanger in front of their ships. Fox stood in front of them ready to address their situation. "We've come to an asteroid that is apparently hostile. It must have been some type of base at some point and we're being attacked by drones. This wouldn't be dangerous if there weren't so many of them but as it is we need to get out there and lower their numbers. As soon as we can we're going to try to get through to the asteroid and land there. Katt and Falco you two will stay in the air and cover us. Okay let's go everyone."

As soon as Fox finished they ran to their respective ships and got in. Fox landed in his seat and immediately started his launch prep. The sliding window lowered over top of him. As the comm. link went green he tested the connection. "Comm. is green, report in."

The crew reported in one by one with one exception. "Katt are you alright?" As soon as he said it Katt came across his monitor.

"I'm here, just took me a bit longer to get in the cockpit."

"Alright R.O.B open the hatches. Let's go team." The Arwings and Katt's ship burst from the hanger out into open space. Fox shot out in front and immediately rolled his ship. "Okay get in formation behind me we're going in."

The ships got into a V formation with Fox at the head. They could now see the drones that Fox had spoke of. They were slightly reminiscent of the automated drones they battled on Fichina only much larger. There were a lot of them and as they saw the group fly from the underbelly of the GreatFox the moved in to engage.

"Ok they're coming for us. Break off if it's necessary and call it out if you're being followed." A shot from one of the drones came towards Fox's ship and he knocked it away with a barrel roll. As they moved in they were starting to get good shots at the drones and they took them. The drones didn't even seem to attempt to dodge and as a result almost all of their shots hit.

As the drones came forward even closer the team was forced to scatter. "They're trying to hit us, they must have explosive payloads." Falco called over the comm.

Fox pulled a hard right and after tearing shots through a few drones managed to escape the large cluster. "Get out of the mass of them, don't let them surround you." A few of the drones had followed him out of the cluster so he pulled a tight loop to get behind them. A few shots from behind and they went down. "Did everyone get out alright?"

They all managed to escape but now Blaze was being followed by a squad of drones. "Falco take out those drones following Blaze. Krystal and Katt get back in formation with me. Falco went off to follow Blaze and as Katt and Krystal came to Fox the main swarm of drones came as well. "Ok follow me for a bit and when I say, turn around and fire a bomb into the cluster. Is everyone ready? Alright, now!"

The three ships turned simultaneously and launched the explosives into the mass of drones. The cluster exploded from the inside. The combination of the three bombs was very effective and the majority of the drones were taken out. "Falco, how are you doing over there?"

"Doing alright, got the drones off of Blaze and now we're cleaning up a few stragglers over here." Fox could see the two Arwings off in the distance.

"Ok Falco you and Katt keep up the fight out here. Krystal and Blaze let's move in towards the asteroid." Krystal and Fox met up with Blaze on the descent to the asteroid, while Falco and Katt shot down the drones that dared to get close. "I see a building down there, that's probably where we need to be. Our landing zone is the clearing in front of it."

Just as they were about to start their landing a part of the building Fox saw had begun to move. The roof of the building slid to the side revealing a large anti air gun. "Pull up quickly! We have to get out of the range of that gun!" They began to turn back as soon as the gun started to shoot. Most of the shots missed but it was spitting so many shots that their shields were still lowering quickly. "Falco as soon as we're out of range launch an electromagnetic pulse bomb at the gun!"

The three Arwings that were retreating were rolling and dodging the fire as best they could but they still had a ways to go before they were out of the range of the electromagnetic pulse. Blaze's voice came across the comm. link. "Shields at fifteen percent!"

Fox gritted his teeth and narrowly dodged a shot on his left side. "Just a little more, hang on!" Falco was hovering only a small distance from the oncoming Arwings and Fox knew that this was the distance they needed to hit.

Blaze came over the comm. again. "My shields are down!" They just needed one last push to make it but a few shots were still behind Blaze. Blaze braced himself for the hit that he knew was coming. But then he passed by Falco without taking the shots and he saw Katt fly past him. "Thanks for deflecting those shots Katt!"

"No problem, I told you I owed you one didn't I?" The escaping Arwings were safely out of the pulse bomb's range and Falco took the shot. The bomb connected almost directly with the gun which went limp immediately. As soon as the building was hit all of the drones that remained stopped in their tracks. They were floating lifelessly in space.

Fox let out a huge sigh. He hadn't expected it to be such a test just to get this crystal. "Nice job everyone. Since there's nothing left in the sky let's all land now."

The five ships flew back towards the asteroid. This time they were allowed to land. "Katt you should stay back here. Make sure to let us know if anything happens out here."

"No problem, I've got my adrenaline burst for the day as it is."

Fox smiled. "Alright, Falco and Krystal come with me. Blaze, try to get your shields working again." Fox took off his flight helmet and replaced it with his space helmet. The cockpit opened up and Fox jumped out. He checked his side for his blaster and felt it resting on his hip. Falco and Krystal were out of their ships as well. "Okay let's check this place out then."

They walked up to the entrance of the building. The door had no handles and wouldn't open. Falco sighed. "These were electronic doors; that pulse knocked em out. Fox if you pull the other side we can probably open them manually."

Fox got on one side and Falco the other. They put their hands in the crack between the two doors. "Okay on the count of three then. One, two, three." They pried at the doors and managed to open them enough to get through.

Fox cracked his knuckles. "Good job, now let's see what this building's doing here" As they walked into the building one thing was clearly evident. It was pitch black. The electromagnetic pulse had knocked out all electronics and that included the lights. "Do either of you have a light?"

"I have my staff with me; that will work." Krystal said as she pulled the shortened staff from her hip. She extended it and the tip lit up the whole room they had entered. Fox gaped at his surroundings and one thing entered his mind; the facility on Sauria. It was just like the lab that Andross built while controlling General Scales.

A/N: Well I made it, a chapter for the week. I plan on updating each Friday so if you're interested that's when you can expect updates.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

A/N: Sorry for being late with this one, had a lot on my plate for a while but hopefully I'm back on track.

The dimly lit room was deathly silent. Fox could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. The soft glow of Krystal's staff bounced off the white walls of the lab. It felt like an eternity before Fox broke the eerie silence. "Come on we've got to get looking for that energy crystal."

They all moved forward in a small group to stay as close as possible to their only light source. They happened upon a door that was behind a waist high desk. Krystal held the staff out as Falco pushed the desk aside. Before they opened the door Fox issued a serious warning. "We all know what Andross is capable of so keep your wits about you. There could be a million monstrosities in this lab so we need to keep our eyes and ears open alright?"

As Fox received the affirmative from the group he clasped the door knob. He slowly turned the knob and the door creaked open. As soon as Fox let go of the knob he saw a shift of movement in the dim light in front of him. He attempted to back up but as he did so he was struck hard in the face by a flying object. Fox fell back from the door and attempted to pry off whatever had attached itself to his helmet. Sharp claws scratched at his visor and he couldn't quite pull it off. In fright Krystal swung her staff hard at the creature that attacked Fox. The sharp claws tore at his helmet as it flew off of Fox and back into the darkened room. Falco ran and shut the door back up and Krystal helped Fox to stand. Krystal put the tip of her staff to Fox's helmet to check for holes. "Are you alright Fox?"

There were no visible holes in his helmet but there were numerous scratches along the surface. "I'll be alright but what the hell was that thing?"

"It kind of looked like a mini Aparoid. I don't know how it was still moving if we hit it with an e.m.p just now." Falco said, confused.

Fox sighed. "Well we're going to need better lighting than this. I'll go back and get a light from the Arwings. We should warn Katt and Blaze anyway. I'll be right back."

Katt sat motionless in her ship. She let out a huge sigh, laced with disappointment. She wanted so badly to be walking through the abandoned base instead of sitting pointlessly here. She took off her flight helmet and replaced it with her space helmet. The helmet slid softly over her dark fur and came to rest gently in place. She pulled up her rifle from its resting spot beside her seat and brought it into shooting position. She let out another sigh and let her rifle rest on her lap. She knew that there was no chance she was going to see any action just sitting around but that did nothing to release her frustration. Blaze's voice came through the comm. of her ship. "Hey Katt are you seeing these things?"

Katt sat straight up in her seat, curiously looking out through the cockpit of her fighter. Her face twisted in disgust at what she saw. There were twenty or so little spider creatures coming from the left side of the building in front of them. Everything down to the way they walked was disgusting. Then she noticed something else about them. They seemed mechanical. Blaze's voice came over the comm. again. "Katt what should we do about these things?"

Katt hit the button on the panel to raise the top of the cockpit. She grabbed her rifle again and pulled herself onto an elevated bar next to her seat. She was lucky; Blaze had just barely put this bar in to help her get in and out. It just so happened that this bar also brought her sight line up over the front of her ship. She watched as the horrible spider-like creatures passed through her crosshair. "Open fire!"

As she said so she ripped off a few good bursts from her rifle. The kick hurt much more than usual but she continued to fire despite the pain. Blaze was also firing off shots quickly outside of his ship. Pieces of the creatures were scattered all around where they had previously been. They were quickly and easily destroyed. Katt let her body relax against the warm metal of her ship. Blaze sat down where he stood and held a hand to his helmet. "Those things looked like machines. How were they still running?"

"Well I don't know. That e.m.p should have knocked them out. More importantly than that though is that, Fox, Falco, and Krystal could be in real trouble now. Maybe you should go an-." Katt was halted by a sudden spasm of coughs. Her ribs felt as though they were being beaten with a sledgehammer. She could feel the force of her coughs ripping her throat. As the coughs slowly came to a halt she felt as though she had lost part of her throat during the coughing fit and she could taste blood on her lips. The kick of her rifle had apparently done more than she thought.

"Katt are you okay?" Blaze walked over to stand next to Katt's ship. He placed his hands on the side of the ship, making sure that he would be there if Katt fell over the side.

Katt coughed one more time and then cleared her throat painfully. "Don't worry about me I'll be fine. Go check on Fox and the others."

Just as she said so Fox came running out of the open doors of the broken down base. "Hey are you two alright? I heard shots being fired what happened?"

"There were some guard robot things that weren't affected by the pulse bomb. We took them out no problem though."Katt raised her blast rifle awkwardly in an attempted triumphant pose.

Fox put a hand to his head in frustration. "Yeah, we encountered the same thing inside the building. I need to get a light but then we're going to head back inside. You two stay out here and defend this position. Once Blaze gets his shields operational again cover this spot from above."

Katt was reinvigorated by the new importance she seemed to have. "Yes, sir!"

Fox reentered the decrepit base holding up the heavy duty flashlight he retrieved from his Arwing. The bright beam of light illuminated the previously pitch black room. The dim light of Krystal's staff pointed Fox back towards the group. "What were those shots out there?" Krystal asked concernedly.

"Apparently there are more of those things that attacked me. A group of them attacked Katt and Blaze but they fended them off." Fox lifted his blaster out of its holder and held it up against the flashlight he held in his other hand.

Falco seemed unsettled by this. "Are you sure it's okay to leave them alone out there?"

"They're in a good position, they're going to be able to see them coming from a distance and Katt is a good shot. You should be more concerned about what we're about to do. We're going into this mess blind. Besides once Blaze gets his shields up again they're going to cover the LZ from above. Let's try to get through here as quickly as possible." Fox motioned for Falco to take point at the door.

Falco pulled his blaster from its holster and placed a hand on the doorknob. Krystal dropped her staff back into its holder on her back and pulled her blaster pistol out. Falco looked at Fox expectantly. Fox nodded and Falco pushed the door open. Fox held the flashlight out as Falco ran in the door and to the side. Krystal then rushed in and knelt on the other side of the entrance. Lastly Fox entered the room. He aimed the light around the room, checking corners for any more of the creatures. He stopped as his light came to rest on another machine-like creature. All three of them shot at the creature and it was destroyed before it could even make a move. Fox continued to survey the room until he felt it was clear. When he was satisfied the room was no longer dangerous he walked over to examine the creature they destroyed. He was disappointed to find that they had shot the creature into pieces and it was hardly even recognizable. Fox let out a gasp. He noticed that there was a red substance amidst the destroyed creature. It was most definitely blood. "They must be organic."

Falco crouched to examine the creature more closely. "But look here, there're electric parts in here as well. They're at least part machine."

A sudden realization came to Fox. "These must be the prototypes of the Aparoids."

Falco stood back up. "Wait so you're thinking that these things are Andross's experiments that led to the Aparoids?"

Fox nodded. "It makes sense. They're in between being mechanical and organic. Only thing is, they were apparently experimented on in another dimension. So they must have been brought here to defend this lab."

Suddenly out of nowhere the lights in the room they were in flickered back to life. The three of them looked around confusedly. They could now very clearly see the complete contents of the room they were in. The walls were almost completely lined with stasis chambers similar to the one Blaze arrived in. Inside of the chambers were even more hideous creatures than the one they previously encountered. They were horribly disfigured people. Their faces were almost completely covered in mechanical parts and their limbs and upper torsos were extremely bloated. The group got in tight to make sure they could see in every direction. After a moment of tense silence Fox spoke. "I don't think they're any danger, come on let's just try to get through here as fast as we can."

The three of them ran quickly to door on the other side of the room. Fox opened the door and brought his pistol up as he entered. The room was small and almost completely empty save for a small office like space to their right. Fox sighed in relief. A computer sat on the desk near the wall. "Well I don't know how or why this place got power back but it seems like it's helping us out here."

Fox walked over to the computer and flicked its power switch. The screen lit up and Fox examined it. "This might take a little while so make sure you two watch the doors while I'm doing this."

Falco and Krystal faced opposite directions looking at both entrances to the room. After a moment of searching Fox was able to find out where the crystal was. "Andross was using it as a power source for this base. That might be how the power came back on in here. We don't really know how this thing works." Fox continued to search the computer until he found the directions to the power room. "Alright we have to get down to the basement floor that's where the crystal is."

The three of them navigated the lab with relative ease but they couldn't shrug off the eerie feeling that they were being watched. They each wanted to say something to relieve the burden of silence they all felt but it seemed as if any thought they had died before it got to their mouths. As they reached the stairs of the facility it seemed necessity took control and Fox was able to break the silence. "Alright all we need to do is get down these stairs and then take a left and we should be in the power room."

They again got into their door breaching position. Falco held the doorknob waiting for Fox's signal. As Fox nodded Falco pushed the door open silently. The light from the hallway poured into the stairwell but there were no lights in the stairwell itself. Fox pulled the flashlight from his belt and aimed it down the stairs. "Clear."

Fox started walking down the stairs and motioned Krystal and Falco to follow closely. They made it down to the first platform of the stairs and as Fox turned to look down the next set of stairs he noticed motion as he swung the light across. "Watch yourself there's something in here!"

Falco and Krystal brought up their blaster pistols and followed the light as Fox tried to catch another glimpse of movement. Fox noticed a movement but was unable to take a shot as whatever it was he saw jumped directly at him. Fox dropped to his back to avoid his attacker but in the process dropped his flashlight. The light spun around and came to rest facing a wall. The creature clung to the wall above Fox and immediately lunged to the side. Fox heard Krystal cry out as the creature jumped on her. He instinctively brought his pistol up but then realized he couldn't see well enough to take a shot. Falco thought more quickly and felt out with his hands in the dark. As he felt something other than flight suit he threw a powerful right hand at the creature. Fox fumbled for the flashlight and as he finally got control of it he brought its light up to see what was going on. The creature had left Krystal and was now grappling with Falco. "Falco I can't get a clear shot! Try to get him off you!"

Falco's arms were straining against the strength of the creature. "Easy for you to say!" Then Falco saw his opening, he latched his hands around the wrists of the creature and dropped to his back. The creature was caught off guard as Falco pulled him over top and kicked upward. The creature flew off of Falco and hard into a wall.

Fox quickly ran to where the creature lay and released shots into its head. With the light directly on it Fox recognized that it was the same as the creatures they saw in the stasis chambers earlier. Falco stood and dusted himself off as Fox went to check on Krystal. "Krystal are you alright?"

Krystal tried to stand but had to grab onto the railing of the stairs as she almost fell over. "Oh I think I sprained my ankle." She let out a pained gasp as she tried to put weight on her foot.

Fox quickly came to her aid, putting her arm on his shoulder to help support her weight. "Don't try to stand on it you'll just end up hurting yourself. You're going to need to go back to the Arwings."

Krystal protested. "No really I'm fine let's just go get that crystal, we're already this far."

Fox was not convinced. "You're not fine at all; you can't keep going like this. Falco can you walk back with Krystal, I'm going to get the crystal and then I'll meet you back there."

Falco let Krystal lean on him. And as they began to walk away Krystal called back to Fox. "You better not be reckless, if things go bad make sure you get out with or without that crystal."

Fox began to walk down the stairs already. "Don't worry about me; I'll be fine, just make sure you get to the ships." Fox looked back up the stairs and watched as Falco and Krystal left. Fox crept slowly down the remaining stairs and stood in front of the door that led to the next hallway. He could see light pouring in from below the door, which was a huge relief. Fox pushed the door open silently and surveyed the hallway quickly. The hallway was well lit and it only took a moment for Fox to see that nothing was out of the ordinary. He walked over to the door to his left. There was an odd red glow coming from below the door this was definitely not something he wanted to see. He yet again pushed open the door cautiously. As he did so his ears caught an odd humming noise. As the door opened he saw the cause of it.

There was a huge generator taking up almost the whole room. Fox made sure the room was clear and then walked up to the huge device. Most of it looked just like a normal generator except for one part. There was a huge glass dome on top of it which housed the red glowing crystal he was looking for. There were beams of light going through it and into to steel rods near its base. Fox didn't really like the idea of grabbing the crystal while the generator was running so he looked for some way to shut it off. The device was very streamlined and he couldn't really see a way to turn it off. As he walked to the back of the generator he found what he was looking for. There were a bunch of huge wires coming from the back end and leading up to the ceiling. Now he had another problem, how to cut them. He remembered a small workers toolbox he saw and went to check it. When he opened it he noticed something immediately. A long fairly thin blade was at the top of the box. He didn't know what it did but it seemed it would work very nicely. As Fox prepared himself to cut the wires he readied his flashlight. As soon as he cut these wires all power in the lab would most likely be gone. Fox lifted the blade and swung hard at the hanging wires. The ends of the wires dropped to the floor and the lights flickered and died.

A/N: Well I finally finished this chapter half a month after I said I would. I had my finals and then immediately after was my birthday and my mom visited for a week so at least I didn't just forget about you guys I was just fairly busy. I'll try to get another update quickly to make up for it.


	18. Chapter 18

L.o.s Chapter 18

Fox's eyes tried in vain to adjust to the dark. He flicked his flashlight on. The light illuminated the back of the generator he just knocked out. The glass bulb still held the crystal in place but it was no longer glowing. Fox kept the bladed instrument he found in one hand as he walked over to the crystal's case. He swung the dull edge against the glass and broke it easily. He was relieved to see that although the crystal was knocked off its metal stand it landed in the corner of the glass case that remained unbroken. Fox dropped the long blade he used to break the glass and reached in carefully for the crystal. As soon as he pulled it out he turned to the door of the room. He wanted to be out of here as quickly as possible. As he reached the door he realized both his hands were full. A swift kick knocked the door ajar and Fox ran through it. After a quick check of the hallway he ran to the staircase. In the eerie silence of the building his footsteps sounded like thunder as he sprinted up the stairs two steps at a time.

He got to the top of the stairs and brought his ear up to the door to the next hallway. He could hear scurrying and started to become worried. He hoped that he could sprint his way out. Yet again he kicked the door open and burst through. A few swings of his flashlight showed a few more of the disgusting monsters he fought earlier. Luckily they weren't blocking his progress and Fox ran full speed toward the door to the office area. He managed to pass the creatures but they began to follow him. Fox didn't even hesitate this time; as soon as he got to the door he hit it with a kick full of momentum. The door burst off its hinges and Fox ran right across the room to ram the next door with his shoulder. As he did so he reentered the lab area they walked through. Only this time there was something much different. As Fox's light worked its way across the room it illuminated every single pod the creatures were encased in and they were now broken. There were at least fifteen of the creatures spread across the room and they were definitely in the way of getting to the door.

Fox was forced to move as he heard the creatures behind him catching up. While still holding tightly onto the crystal and his flashlight Fox managed to run to the less crowded side of the room. The creatures seemed to be attracted to the light Fox held and they all seemed to start coming towards him at once. Fox looked around the room but there was hardly anything in the room besides the pods. Fox desperately tried to come up with a plan as the creatures were closing in on him. Just as he expected he was done for Falco kicked in the door at the other side of the room. The loud noise attracted the creature's attention and they looked away for a moment. As they did a few of them were met with blaster rifle fire. Falco yelled to Fox. "Fox get on the ground!"

Fox dove to the floor and as he did so Falco let his blaster rifle unload on the mass of creatures. Most of the creatures were hit and either fell to the floor or backed away from the door in pain. As Fox heard Falco's rifle stop for a moment he stood back up quickly and shined the light near Falco to let him know he was coming. Falco stepped out of the doorway and Fox ran out as quickly as he could. Fox turned around and shut the door behind him, his breath heavy from the sprint. "Thanks for the assist; you have no idea how good your timing was."

"No problem. Let's just head back to the Arwings, everyone else is already in the air." Fox and Falco sprinted out of the base and to their Arwings. Fox jumped in the cockpit and quickly prepped his ship. As he was doing so he heard Arwing shots landing in front of him. The creatures had made it surprisingly quickly out of the base but they were taken out immediately by the ships in the sky. Fox and Falco finished the prep on their ships and flew up back towards the GreatFox.

After a small celebration in the hanger of the GreatFox the crew went on their ways. Blaze took the crystal to put in a container he made especially for it and Falco helped roll Katt out of the hanger. Fox let Krystal put her arm around his shoulder and helped her slowly make her way out of the hanger towards the med bay. Krystal protested at first. "I don't think this is serious enough for me to have to go to the med bay."

Fox just continued to lead her on. "I know it isn't that bad but you still need to ice it to make sure it doesn't get any worse. I'm going to send R.O.B down after to take a look at it too, just to make sure it's not worse than we think."

Krystal sighed and allowed herself to be lead towards the med bay. After a moment of silence Krystal spoke again but she spoke with a quaver in her voice. "Fox, Falco told me what happened when you were on your way out." She stayed silent for a moment trying to find the words to say. "I really messed up. It's my fault you were all alone in there."

Fox shook his head. "It was not your fault. You got pounced when we couldn't see, there's nothing you could have done about it."

They arrived at the med bay and Fox helped Krystal down onto one of the sterilized beds. "It's not just that though. I should have been able to sense that that creature was there but there were too many creatures there and their horrible thoughts were stopping me from sensing anything right. If I trained harder it wouldn't have happened at all."

Fox sat down on the bed next to Krystal. "If there's one thing I've learned while in Starfox it's this, if you make a mistake or were unprepared for something, beating yourself up about it won't help. If you feel like you were unprepared then use that as a reason to make sure you're ready next time." Fox put his arm around Krystal and gave her a light squeeze. "Don't get down on yourself about it. It'll make me feel just as bad."

Krystal hugged him back. "Thanks Fox I appreciate it."

After giving Krystal another squeezing hug Fox stood. "Don't worry about it. I'll go get you some ice to put on your ankle." Fox went over to the mini-freezer in the corner of the room and pulled out an ice pack. "I'm surprised at how little pain you're in. I've sprained my ankle and it's no walk in the park."

Krystal caught the ice pack as Fox threw it to her. "Oh well it does hurt quite a bit but I have a very good way to cope. When I'm around people that are in pain I feel some of that pain as well but now I'm the one in pain and being around healthy people helps take my mind off it."

Fox smiled in amazement. "Wow that's really neat. Okay make sure you stay here, I'm going to go take over for R.O.B so he can come down and check on you."

Krystal adjusted the ice pack on her ankle. "Don't worry about me; I don't think I could bring myself to go anywhere else anyway."

Falco pushed Katt's wheelchair down the main hallway of the GreatFox. There was silence for awhile, broken up every once in awhile by the clanking noise of the wheelchair as it passed over bumps. Falco was starting to feel awkward for the silence when Katt spoke. "You know, I think I did more work than you did in that mission and my legs don't even work right."

Falco was completely caught off guard. "What the heck are you talking about? I'm the one who knocked out almost all of them with that e.m.p plus I gunned down a ton of those creatures and saved Fox. There's no way you can tell me you did more than that."

Katt laughed at him. "You are so defensive. Yeah I know you did more than me, but don't let that get to your head, I know it's only because I'm crippled. I did manage to take out two whole waves of those things though. I have to tell you Blaze isn't a great shot."

Falco laughed. "Yeah I guess now that I think about it we trained him in how to fly but never taught him how to shoot. So you really managed to take on two waves of those things? I'm surprised you could handle the rifle well enough with your injuries."

"Oh yeah because you know something small like that is going to get in my way. Sure I have aches everywhere but if it weren't for my legs I'd be at one hundred percent right now." As if to prove her wrong, a violent spasm of coughs racked Katt's body. When t subsided and she pulled her hand away from her mouth there was blood again.

Falco turned the wheelchair around on the spot. "Yeah you sure seem fine. I'm taking you to the med bay. If R.O.B says that you aren't fit to be going on missions then you're staying here."

"You can't tell me that! I already know I'm well enough to keep going; I did well enough today anyway. It's not up to you anyway, If Fox thinks I'm okay to keep going then I'm going to keep going."

Falco frowned severely. "Alright I know you want to help and I want you to help but if it means that you're going to permanently hurt yourself or get yourself killed then I don't want you to be out there. Besides if you don't hurt yourself now then you can help us out later."

Katt stayed quiet now but it was very obvious she was still unhappy. Falco continued to push the wheelchair to the med bay.

Fox sat on the bridge in front of the display R.O.B was constantly working at. It had been a long time since he used it last. Once he set the GreatFox on course he attempted to patch through a communications uplink to Bill Grey. Bill came up on the large display in front of Fox. "Hey Fox what's going on?"

Fox could tell that Bill was very tired, it seemed as though he hadn't slept since the team left Corneria. "Well we just barely landed on an asteroid that was being used as a lab by Andross. I figured you would want the coordinates so you can more fully take care of it when you get the chance. It's most likely still dangerous though. I'll send you the coordinates over the channel."

Bill nodded to him slowly. "I'll take a look when I get the chance. I don't know how long that will be though everything is still very hectic down here. We've been setting up trials for some of the people that helped Jensen out but it's really hard to pin down the facts and the whole thing is just one big mess."

Fox crossed his arms and cocked his head to one side. "Well if anything important comes up let me know, we still have no real leads so if you need any help we're free to go."

"I won't hesitate to ask but I doubt that anything will come up where we will need your expertise. The mess we're in will most likely be resolved through diplomacy and pen and paper work. I'll make sure to let you know if anything comes up regarding your father or Andross but for now I really need to get back to work."

Fox bowed his head slightly. "Alright Bill I'll talk to you later." Bill's face disappeared from the screen as Fox closed the link. He walked over to the P.A system of the GreatFox. "Blaze, come down here as soon as you can."

As soon as Fox put the call over the P.A the doors behind him opened. He turned around to see Blaze facing him. Blaze chuckled a bit at the coincidence. "I was just coming down here to see you when you put the call out. You have good timing. What do you need?"

Fox walked over to the table that had the map with all the crystal markings on it. "Are you sure that these crystals are the only power source that you're machine can use?"

Blaze walked over to the table as well. "They're the only power source that puts out enough energy at once like that. I know that it seems like they're more trouble than they're worth but think of it this way, no one really knew about these crystals around here. Yet the one we just found was in an old base of Andross's. So the only person that knew about them was Andross. If we keep searching for these there's a good chance we could run into him."

Fox thought about this for a moment. "That does seem like a fairly good idea. I have to warn you though if we end up finding him we're going after him immediately. I appreciate all the help you've been and we want to help you out but if we get the chance to finally take Andross out we're going to take it."

Blaze just smiled. "Oh I already knew that, besides I just think of it this way. My family and friends were thrown out and my entire planet was destroyed by Andross. If I can help take him out then I can stop it from happening to other people as well."

Fox shook his head in amazement. "I have to tell you I wouldn't be as positive in your position. So you said you came up here for something?"

Blaze began to walk away, towards the exit of the bridge. "Oh well that was what I came down to talk to you about. I knew you wanted to speak with me. I'll just be off to fix a better containment unit for this crystal."

R.O.B examined Krystal's ankle with a surprisingly soft touch for his metallic hands. After a moment of surveying the injury R.O.B offered his diagnosis in his monotone voice. "The ankle is sprained and there is no other injury that requires attention. I can coat the ankle in a liquid cast which will relieve pressure of the area from the ankle and allow you to walk again without aggravating the injury."

R.O.B was about to prepare to apply the liquid caste when the door to the med bay was pushed open. Falco wheeled Katt into the room. "R.O.B Katt needs to get looked at as well, she was coughing up blood."

R.O.B judged Krystal's ankle was not in immediate danger so he went to look at Katt. "Legs broken in multiple areas, but already taken care of. Fairly severe bruising in the arms, but not dangerous. Mild head trauma; may require pain reliever. Bruising in the chest and abdominal area is not dangerous and in non vital areas. Three cracked ribs require no overly strenuous activity for a period."

Falco was slightly amazed by the speed and skill with which R.O.B was able to diagnose Katt. "Okay well the main question here is whether she would still be able to go on missions."

R.O.B already had the answer computed. "The ability to run flight based missions is not seriously impaired but ground missions should not be attempted for a multitude of reasons." R.O.B took a small canister of pain reliever from the counter he was next to and placed them in Katt's hands. "Also if it is necessary to fire arms, only small arms should be attempted."

Katt turned herself around in her wheelchair and began to push herself through the door. "I told you I was fine."

Falco stood for a moment in shocked silence. "You're really telling me with all those injuries you're still going to let her go out there?"

R.O.B began to turn to give Krystal the liquid cast. "As stated as long as the necessary precautions are taken there is no more danger than usual. Another thing not stated is head trauma may cause more severe emotion than usual so it is best to use caution in dealing with Katt for a time. If given too much negative stimuli it could turn out very badly. I recommend you speak with her." During the entire time he spoke R.O.B finished the cast. Krystal stood up almost immediately and was able to walk as if nothing had happened.

Krystal began to walk towards the door but stopped next to Falco who was still standing there still slightly angry and surprised. "I agree with R.O.B you should go talk to Katt, she was never great with her emotions before so if they're more severe now you should try to keep her in a good mood." With that Krystal left the room with Falco still standing in the same place he stood as he entered.

A/N: Well not much happened in this one but it was necessary. And I got two updates in a row again, go me.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

A/N: Alright I'm changing my update schedule to every other Friday as I have started work on an original novel. I'm trying to work on both that and this evenly so that's why I need more time to finish chapters now. If I get to a point where I'm writing a lot then I may go back to my other update schedule but no promises.

Fox cursed his luck; the next closest crystal was supposedly located on Zoness. He wasn't particularly fond of the polluted ocean world and he was unsure of what they would do if the crystal happened to be underwater. The blue marine was in a state of disrepair as it hadn't seemed very useful since the Lylat war. Fox just had to hope that the crystal would be on some abandoned station. Although with what happened at the last abandoned station they visited he was unsure if this would be much better.

Falco and R.O.B both came onto the bridge at the same time. R.O.B took over at his station again and Falco came to stand next to Fox. After taking a quick glance at the navigation chart Fox was using Falco knew where they were headed. "Zoness huh? What are you gunna do if this thing is in the ocean?"

Fox sighed and scratched the back of his head. "I was actually just thinking that same thing, I can't really think of a way for us to manage it. If it turns out it's down there we may just have to go to the next closest place."

Blaze walked onto the bridge next. As he watched R.O.B's control station he made an observation. "We're almost there."

Fox turned to face Blaze. "Hey is there any way you can point us to where this crystal is better than just this area because if it's under water there's nothing we can do."

Blaze closed his eyes for a second. "Hmm nope it's not under water but it is in a building. We're close enough where I can feel the energy from it."

"Wait but if you need to be close to sense them then how did you mark them out on this map?" Fox was curious to see how this worked.

Blaze smiled. "Well I didn't sense them to mark them down. That was all from memory, my parents had a map that was a lot wider than that and they marked where all the crystals were in this area. They knew I would need to make this device in order to get back so I had to memorize that. I also had to memorize the blueprints of the transport but I forgot some of that so I had to work some of it out myself."

Fox was somewhat worried about Blaze's explanation. "So you're telling me that the device that you're having the Cornerian scientists build may not be the exact same as the ones your parents wanted you to build? What if you messed something up?"

"Yeah I guess I would be worried to, but I didn't so it's okay." Blaze ended the conversation just like that by leaving Fox in a stunned silence.

Falco whispered to Fox. "You know, I'm not really looking forward to taking that trip so much."

Time returned to normal in the alternate dimension and Reina shuddered as she tried to brace herself for the oncoming attack. She threw her arms up to protect her face but nothing came. She moved her arms away and looked out in wonder. Andross was gone but she was still drifting through space.

The pilots on the deck also noticed the anomaly. "Hey where is he, we need to get a lock to fire!"

"I think that would be very hard to do at this point." Andross had reappeared in the captain's chair on the bridge. All of the crew turned to face him pulling out makeshift weapons as they did so. Before any of them could get close Andross threw his arms into the air and a huge force spread out from him. The shockwave that he sent out tore through the bridge ripping through metal and flesh until the entire ship was shredded. The only part of the entire ship that was left was the small section Andross stood on, including the captains chair. Andross sat back down in the chair. "You've done what I needed you to, there's no more reason for you to be here. Although your pieces still could be of use."

Reina looked on in horror as the remnants of the ship drifted away. She could feel her suit start to deteriorate and she knew she had no chance of getting out of this. She closed her eyes and cried softly as she continued to float through the hostile space.

Everything was quiet on the bridge of the GreatFox as they entered Zoness' orbit. Blaze pointed out the area he could sense the crystal from on the projection of the planet. Fox, Falco, and Blaze left the bridge in silence as they walked towards the hangar. Along the way Blaze suddenly felt a wave of cold wash over him. He fell to the floor of the metal walkway on his hands and knees. He felt extremely light-headed as though he lost some of himself. Fox and Falco stopped and went to check on him. "Hey Blaze are you alright? What's going on?"

Blaze just stayed motionless there for a few moments. After a while he stood back up. "It's nothing; I just had a really bad blood rush that's it."

Fox and Falco looked at him skeptically. "Well if you're sure you're alright." They continued down to the hanger without incident. As they entered they saw Katt and Krystal already in their cockpits ready for takeoff.

Fox, Falco, and Blaze jumped in their ships as well and started up their system checks. As soon as the comm. system was online Krystal came over it. "Blaze are you okay you seem really down?"

"Don't worry about me I'll be fine." Fox knew that Blaze was hiding something but he figured now wasn't the time to push him on it.

"Alright team let's move out. R.O.B open the hangar bay doors." The hangar doors shifted to the side to allow the ships to fly out. The three Arwings of Fox, Falco, and Krystal shot out first, leaving a string of purple trails from the hangar. Next Katt's modified ship took off and left behind a wide blue streak. Finally Blaze took off as well, falling into the back end of their V formation.

After they passed into the atmosphere and the fire around their ships cleared they all kept their eyes open for a landing zone. Katt was the first to see the strip of rusty metallic buildings stranded in the polluted ocean of Zoness. As they neared the area a trouble arose. They could land on the top of the buildings but only two ships could fit on each rooftop. Fox took command of the situation. "Katt, you stay in the air and make sure we will have an escape route and let us know if anyone else comes around here. Krystal you and I are taking the second building in the line. Falco, you and Blaze will take the first building."

The ships landed in their designated areas and they all jumped out as Katt circled overhead. Fox investigated the building trying to find a way in. Falco came over the comm. "We can drop down onto this platform and there's a door right there."

Fox looked near the same area on his building but instead there was just a huge metal tunnel running from the first building. "Alright well if you can get in go for it, but be careful if there's anyone here then they heard us coming."

Krystal called out to Fox. "There definitely are people here but they seem confused, we should hurry and find a way in."

Just then they heard a loud discharge of weaponry. Falco came over the comm. again. "We met resistance and we're pinned down. They're smugglers by the look of it so weapons should be free."

"Alright weapons free." Fox looked around quickly trying to find a way in. He then noticed a piece of metal on the roof that looked different than the rest of the rusty surface. Taking a guess he stomped down hard on the piece of metal. The metal was ripped out from its adhesive and shot down into the room below. A few shots came back up at the newly formed hole. Fox stepped back a moment and took a flash grenade from his belt tossing it in the hole casually. After he heard the grenade go off he dropped down through the hole and rolled as he hit the ground of the room. He quickly took out two of the hostiles in front of where he landed and turned to disable another. He dropped behind the cover of a desk that happened to be near him as one of the enemies who was unaffected by the grenade charged him. As soon as Fox was about to pop over the cover and take a shot Krystal dropped from the hole landing directly on the enemy. Fox checked around the room to make sure they were clear. When he deemed it safe he told Krystal to disarm any of the hostiles who were alive and then he checked with Falco over the comm. "How is it going over there?"

Fox could hear gunfire as Falco responded. "Not great to be honest. They've still got us pinned and we can't get any shots in on them."

Fox saw a door on his side and remembered the metal tunnel he saw connecting the two buildings. "Alright stay where you are and stay down." Fox ran over to the door and pushed it open. As he ran down the tunnel he pulled a second pistol from his belt. He pushed open the second door and saw six hostiles all aimed directly to the door that Falco and Blaze were going through. Fox pulled his pistols up to aim at two different enemies and fired. The two that he shot dropped immediately and as the rest of them turned to face him they met with more blaster fire. Fox took them all out without having to take cover. "It's clear!" He called out to Falco and Blaze.

Falco and Blaze stood from where they were hiding. Falco saw the two pistols that Fox held. "Wow I'm so glad you decided to go the flashy route."

Falco was obviously being sarcastic. "Well you know if you didn't need my help you should have just said so." Fox turned to walk back into the room he dropped into with Falco and Blaze following him. As he re-entered the room Krystal was gone and the smuggler he disabled was crawling towards his weapon. Fox ran up and kicked him in the face. He then picked up the odd rifle and shoved it in the smuggler's face. "Where is Krystal?"

The smuggler held his bleeding nose. When he looked up he saw the barrel of his gun in his face. "You talking about the blue chick?" Fox nodded and allowed him to continue. "Some more of the guys grabbed her and brought her back into the base. They didn't bother bringing me along though."

Fox thought about it for a second and then swung the rifle hard at the side of the man's head knocking him unconscious. "Alright let's go find Krystal. Blaze let us know when we're getting close."

"She's not that far away as it is we should be able to find her very soon." As he said that the three of them heard gunfire coming from deeper into the base.

Fox sprinted to the other door in the room and burst through it with a pistol in his hands. As he walked in he saw three unconscious men and Krystal was swinging her staff around expertly. Two of the other people there were still up but one was clutching his stomach. The other got his gun knocked from his hand by a swing of her staff and then quickly was forced to kneel from a whack to the back of his legs. After that hit Krystal spun again knocking him out with a hit to the head. The man who was clutching his stomach pulled a pistol off his belt and aimed it at Krystal. Krystal threw her staff at him making him loose a poorly aimed shot to dodge the flying weapon. When he looked back up Krystal threw a full force jumping kick into him. As the last enemy slumped Krystal was breathing heavily. As she lifted her staff from the ground she was met with Fox giving her a small round of applause. "Well I'm glad we didn't need to come save you; that was some great fighting. What happened before you got caught?"

Krystal shrugged. "Well they came in when you left and since they all had their guns pointed at me I figured I couldn't take them all out like that. But then the gunfire that you were laying down back there distracted them so I took them out. Also before that I learned that they are smuggling weaponry to gangs on and near Corneria, so if we take this whole operation out while we're here we'll be doing some good."

Fox nodded. "Yeah so now we have two objectives. We need to find the crystal that's somewhere around here and we need to take down this smuggling operation. Falco, you and Blaze search around for the crystal, Blaze can sense it so you should be able to find it fairly quickly. Once you do get back to your ships, we'll meet you back there as soon as we're done here."

"How are you planning on taking this place out? Are you just going to search out all the people here and take em out?" Falco asked quizzically.

"Well we know they're smuggling weaponry so most likely they have some explosives around, we just need to find them and rig a timed explosion."

Falco seemed to like the idea of blowing up a whole set of buildings. "That sounds nice, alright Blaze which way are we headed?"

Blaze simply pointed over to a door on their side. As Blaze and Falco left through that door Fox turned to keep going down straight through the main route of the buildings. As Krystal followed Fox she voiced her concerns. "You do realize that if we blow up this whole set of buildings there are going to be a lot of people dying?"

Fox continued on his path undeterred. "Yes but this is the fastest way and we still have more to do. Besides these people are criminals anyway, you've shot tons of them."

Krystal held Fox back by the shoulder. "Yes but that was in battle there are people here who are defenseless. You can't tell me that that doesn't bother you at all."

Fox sighed. "Well they shouldn't be smuggling weapons to gangs it's their own fault." He was going to turn back on his way but the look on Krystal's face made him stop. "Alright if we find another way then we'll do that but we still need to be out of here as quick as we can."

The two of them continued on in an awkward silence. Fox pushed open the door in front of him and they entered a dark room. The lights turned on as they entered and they noticed crates all around them. Fox checked one of them. "Yup this must be their storage area, this is full of guns." Fox heaved a sigh and clicked the button on the side of his helmet. "Hey Falco have you found that crystal yet?"

"Yeah we found it no problem, didn't even have to take anyone out on the way."

"Alright can you tell me what room you're in?"

After a moment Falco responded. "Uh I think this is a control station or something, there's a bunch of monitors and control panels and stuff like that."

Fox's spirits lifted at the news. "That's great, is there any way you can strand these people here or do something so they can't get these weapons out?"

"Ah no explosion then? Hey Blaze you heard Fox, is there anything you can do?"

Fox waited a moment and heard a smashing noise over the comm. "What was that?"

Blaze's voice came over the comm. this time. "I disabled all of the ships in their underwater hangar and destroyed the control panel. There's no way for them to get out now."

"Alright, we can have Bill send for a pick up so these guys will get taken back to Corneria. You guys head back to your ships and we'll be on our way as well. See you back on the GreatFox."

A/N: Thanks for reading as usual, see you again on the 9th.


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